


Still Jack and Daniel - The Rainbow Series - Building a Rainbow (Eleven)

by Annejackdanny



Series: Still Jack and Daniel Series 4 - The Rianbow Series [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Fluff, Kidfic, LGBT youth rights, M/M, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 07:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4296375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annejackdanny/pseuds/Annejackdanny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel has his 11th birthday coming up and he is actually looking forward to it. But then something happens that will change his plans and turn his birthday party into something special.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My story is set in 2006, one and a half year after the SJD Full Circle series and Daniel turns 11 (we left him at age 9). In 2006 social media was still at its beginning stages, FB had just been opened for High Schools that year and things were a little less focused on the internet- even though it did not take long for social media to take over the world after that :) 
> 
> Also, I did research on kids having their own bank accounts and it’s possible the way I fleshed it out, but this is still a fictional story, so please do not nail me on facts here :)
> 
> This story deals with LGBT youth rights and dawning puberty of an 11 year old aware Daniel. There is nothing graphic in here, though.

Another note I want to make is about my Rainbow Kids/Rainbow Network. It is loosely based on a real organization called The Center, which is for LGBT of all ages to meet, seek help or just hang out in a safe environment. The Center also has a youth center called Rainbow Alley. That’s what my Rainbow Kids and Rainbow Network is based on. If you are interested in the work of the real organization, you can look it up here:

<http://www.glbtcolorado.org/rainbow-alley/>

And last but not least … I started this story before the US legalized gay marriages on June 26th, but I’m very happy this finally happened and my little story sort of fits in with that theme because it’s a stand for tolerance and equality. That’d be all... Happy reading :)

**Building Rainbows**

**(Eleven)**

Every time Daniel rode his bike to the library he passed by the Rainbow Kids Youth Center. That’s what it was called now. It had opened just a couple of weeks ago, the paint on the walls was still fresh and there were always kids hanging out on the basketball field, the small skate area in the back, or the wide lawn in the front.

Daniel never stopped to take a closer look, check out the kids or read the list of events displayed in a showcase by the driveway. But he found a bit of pride and satisfaction in the thought that he had contributed at least some of the donation money to make this place happen.

Until a year or so ago the Rainbow Kids Center had been nothing but a run down building at a street corner two blocks away from Cascade Ave where Penrose Library was. Al had once told him, as they rode by, that it used to be a youth club, but got closed for some reason and had been abandoned ever since. The windows had been smashed, the former green facade had been dirty and covered in lots of graffiti of the ugly kind.

The front lawn had been littered with trash and the wire fence with the ‘No Trespassing” sign had been cut open in several places. Maybe older kids used to have parties there with alcohol and joints, who knew? Daniel had never paid much attention to it, it had just been a deserted place.

When he was on his way to the library his mind was usually set on the anticipation of new books to find or if the one book he couldn’t take home the last time because it had been loaned out, was now available. If the nice Mrs. Pine, who never made a fuss or gave him funny looks when he borrowed books from the adult section, would be working today.

The way to the library was one of his frequently used routes. Every couple of weeks, depending on his work load and how much time he had on free weekends, he had a library day. Sometimes BD joined him, sometimes Al came along (though Al mostly browsed the game section), but mostly he came alone and that suited him just fine. He loved having these days to himself where he spent many undisturbed hours just looking for books, reading here and there, flipping through pages, going from shelf to shelf like a butterfly fluttering from delicious flower to flower. He’d sit in one of the reading areas with a pile of books and try to make his choices; which ones to take home? He looked through the games and music section, sometimes – but not often – the movie section, too.

On his way back, when the afternoon had passed so quickly that he was in a hurry to make it home in time for dinner, he took a short cut that led him along the back of the run-down youth club. There was a basketball field, but the basket had come down and lay broken and dirty in the dust. Weeds had grown out of every crack and someone had sprayed WAR SUCKS all over the back wall of the building. One day someone had crossed out WAR and turned the sentence into LISA SUCKS.

Daniel had wondered briefly if Lisa sucked on a general basis or if she was good at sucking... He had bitten his lip to stop the giggle wanting to escape him. Thankfully no one had been around to witness this weird outburst of hormonal giddiness his mind forced on him occasionally whether he wanted it or not. But that had pretty much been the only time he consciously acknowledged the abandoned building.

But then, two months or so before his 11th birthday, something had changed...

  
  


**I**

He and Al were on their way to Penrose Library to sign up for the teen summer reading program and get their first books. Daniel almost missed the shiny new (and high) fence with the “Construction Area – No Trespassing” sign in front of the house and the trucks parked in the wide paved driveway.

“Something’s going on there,” he interrupted Al’s ongoing whining about the reading program, books in general, his mom and Doc Svenson’s stupid ideas.

“Huh?” Al paused in his prattling long enough to cast a glance at the trucks and shrugged his skinny shoulders. “Oh, yeah.”

“What do you think they’re doing? Tearing it down?” Daniel slowed down a bit to look for an advertisement sign with information on what they were turning the building into, but couldn’t see anything.

“No clue. Who cares. Maybe they’ll turn it into a book store,” Al grumbled and picked up speed again. “Just to annoy me.”

“You’re a real pain today,” Daniel informed him bluntly.

“Well, your dad didn’t force you to sign up for this crappy reading thing.”

“Nope, but I did anyway. So stop whining, take it like a man,” Daniel prompted.

“You LIKE reading. It wasn’t exactly a sacrifice.” But he shut up then and they left the building behind.

The teen summer reading included three levels. To complete the first one they were required to either complete three books or read nine hours. By July 31th they should have completed 9 books or 27 hours of reading. That was a piece of cake for Daniel. For Al, not so much. They had looked into the kids summer reading – since they weren’t teenagers yet, age wise - and it hadn’t been appealing to either of them so now Al had to put up with more reading hours or more books if he didn’t want to get ‘bling blings’ for his shoes as a prize and color in little stars for every five reading hours he completed.

Al had been forced to join the program because according to his mom he spent way too much time at his computer and in front of the TV. And his English grades had been slipping. Doc Svenson had said he needed to widen his horizon and read ‘normal’ books instead of his beloved Stephen Hawking books and other physics related work. Al and Daniel suspected that the whole thing had been the Doc’s idea in the very first place, but either way Al was stuck with the reading program, whether he liked it or not.

After listening to Al’s whining for several days, Daniel had decided to join the program, too. Partly because he felt like giving Al some moral support and partly because he had developed a new liking for fantasy books. It was light reading material, something he enjoyed just for relaxation. Of course he’d read Tolkien, Terry Brooks and Anne McCaffrey during the 70ties, but that had been a long time ago and he hadn’t read many fictional books as an adult.

Historical books, yes, huge anthropological tomes and archeological books, travelogues about places he’d never been... all of that had interested him and then of course he’d always done a lot of work related reading. He was still doing that. But he found that re-reading the Rings or the Pern books or the Shannara Triology was a lot of fun. He had also found a lot of new stuff to read like the first book of Temeraire – The Majesty’s Dragon - or even the new books of the Shannara Series by Brooks. And from time to time he read Harry Potter and Eragon.

The theme for the summer reading program was Fantasy Heroes and that sounded like fun. At least to Daniel it did.

For the first level he chose the three first books of the “Ranger’s Apprentice” Series by John Flannagan. The plot reminded him a bit of the rangers in Lord of the Rings and the main character was a fifteen year old orphaned boy. It had myths and heroism and a complex fantasy world – all the things Daniel liked in his new-found reading pleasure.

That evening it was just Daniel and BD for dinner. Jack was stuck at the mountain with paperwork and a phone conference with Washington. It was a pretty common thing these days and while Daniel wished Jack was home more often, he never complained about it. Times were difficult out there in the galaxy and as long as it was paperwork and DC keeping Jack on base and not a real Ori crisis, things were as normal and okay as they could get.

BD served Cesar salad and steaks and they both tried to ignore the dog who sat next to them, drooling and looking hopefully from one Daniel to the other.

“Find some cool books for the summer program?” BD asked as he passed the salad.

“Yep. It’s a series. I hope it’s good.” He gave BD a summary of the books and sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to wait until next weekend to start reading. They sound really cool. But I promised Al we’d start together and he won’t have much time during the week. At least that’s what he said.”

“Is he still annoyed? What kind of books did he take home?”

“Oh, he’s annoyed, all right. I recommended the first Percy Jackson. You know, The Lightning Chief. With the Olympians. I don’t think he’ll manage more than one book for this first level, but he’ll cover the nine hours of reading with that. It's funny how he can read hours and hours of boring stuff...”

“Boring for you. Not boring for him,” BD said. “Most people are bored to tears by what we read.”

Daniel sighed. “Thanks for the lecture. I sooo needed that. Not.”

BD grinned. “You’re welcome.”

“I guess I wouldn’t be thrilled to read books about physics,” Daniel admitted. “I just don’t get physics. Sam and Al can have whole conversations I don’t understand a word of.”

“Uh, yeah. I noticed that. I have actual Jack moments there, going; what?” BD groused.

Sam and Al hit it off like a house on fire. Al was sometimes over when Sam, Pete and Teal’c stopped by for dinner on Friday nights and Al was always over the moon because Sam not only took him seriously but actually engaged happily in subjects like string theory or black holes with him.

“But I think Al will like Percy Jackson,” Daniel said.

BD snorted. “Make sure he doesn't just watch the movie.”

“That would be cheating. Al may be annoyed, but he’d never cheat,” Daniel defended his friend.

“You’re right, he wouldn’t. It goes against his sense of accuracy,” BD agreed as he cut a small part of his steak into pieces.

Daniel squirted Chilli Sauce on his plate and dunked a piece of meat into it. “Yep.”

“You settled on a plan for your birthday party yet?” BD changed the subject.

“ _Our_ birthday.” Daniel smirked.

“Yep. But it’s your year to choose and I know there were some ideas floating around, sooo... ?”

Daniel knew BD would happily just leave all the birthday arrangements to him, but Daniel had insisted that they take turns. Last year BD had taken Jack and Daniel to Denver. They’d done the Four Mile History Park Tour through a small village of historical buildings nestled on the banks of Cherry Creek. It had been interesting and just enough historical information to even keep Jack focused. Jack had insisted they do the gold digging and washing thing and even that had been fun. And later they had met with Sam and Teal’c for dinner at their favorite restaurant in the Springs.

This year it was Daniel’s turn and he’d actually given it some thought. Having real birthday parties - and enjoying them - was still kind of new to him. Prior to his downsizing it had always been a chore; the gifts, the attention, the obligation to do some sort of celebrating because it was expected of you even though everyone pretended it wasn’t. But over the last couple of years his perspective had changed somewhat as he had learned to embrace his life as a kid and shaken off some of his grown-up issues. Even BD seemed to enjoy their birthday now. At least he no longer tried to lock himself away and hide until it was over.

“I’d like to go camping at the Garden of the Gods, have a BBQ and go swimming.” They had talked about this some time ago and Daniel had been torn between the camping trip and a paintball game or having a party at home. The Garden of the Gods had won.

“No rock climbing?” BD asked hopefully.

Daniel snorted. “Al isn't going to summer camp this year so he’ll be invited. No rock climbing.” Al didn’t do rock climbing. Neither did BD even though he was very capable of climbing rocks if he had to. He just chose not to.

Daniel had lost his fear of heights with the downsizing and had attended a rock climbing class at the Garden of the Gods last summer. He had enjoyed it, but was out of practice because with their work schedule and everything going on in their lives they didn’t make it out to the mountains very often.

“Thank you,” BD said with feeling, picked up a piece of meat and let his hand slide under the table.

“Everyone can bring something. Like food or drinks. That way they won’t have to buy me any gifts. I just want us to be together.”

“I like that. Jack’s going to make sure SG-1 doesn't go off world that weekend. So unless there’s a crisis we should all be around. That leaves Janet, Cassie and whoever else you want to invite.”

“Well, there’s Al and Dominik if Cass wants to bring him. And Pete of course.” Daniel finished most of his steak and picked up a leftover piece to drop it for the dog.

One of the rules in this house was to not feed the dog human food. Another rule was to make occasional exceptions when no one was looking as long as it was food that wasn’t bad for the dog.

“And you know the best thing?” Daniel let the dog lick his fingers clean and then wiped them on his jeans. “I won’t have to go to Doc Svenson’s party. It’s the same weekend as my birthday.”

BD raised his eyebrows. “You mean her farewell party? The one she’s hosting in the backyard of her office? That’s on the same weekend as your... our... birthday? I thought it was later.”

“No, it’s the same weekend! I’ve been trying to come up with excuses for not having to show up there. But now I won’t have to,” Daniel said.

“Well, you could postpone your birthday party to the weekend after that weekend,” BD said lightly.

“Are you kidding? Uh-huh, not gonna happen.” Daniel had no intention of spending an afternoon at Svenson’s office with her other little patients doing stupid party games and competitions. Having his birthday party was the best reason ever to justify his absence.

“Cassie might want to go,” BD cautioned carefully. “And what about Al?”

“Cassie isn’t even her patient anymore and Al would rather eat a bowl of termites than have to go there,” Daniel said with a frown, then blinked. “Do you want to go? Really? There’ll be a bunch of kids and teens with their families and little siblings and there’ll be a bouncing castle for the little siblings and weird games like Tug o war or Twister or whatever.”

BD grimaced and shook his head. “No, I... really... don’t, thank you very much. Never mind.”

Daniel started clearing the table. “I have an appointment with her before she leaves. I can say good-bye to her without having to go to that party thing.”

It wasn’t a big deal, really. She'd gotten a better job offer at some fancy psych clinic for abused and traumatized kids in California. The pay was probably great and the weather was a tenfold better than in Colorado. Besides, Daniel only saw her once a month now and sometimes not even then. He had grown out of the stage where he’d needed a shrink for his daily life issues. Mostly.

BD opened the freezer and rummaged around in it. “Chocolate chip ice cream?”

Daniel loaded the dishwasher. “Yeahsureyabetcha.”

“Sometimes Jack’s influence on your linguistic skills worries me,” BD muttered and they shared a grin.


	2. II

**II**

As May turned into June and Al was out of school for the summer, they sat up in the tree house and read. Daniel with joy, Al with lots of sighs and very little motivation at first. But he loved super heroes and after a while he got into the Percy Jackson book enough to keep reading. Daniel’s first book of the Ranger Series turned out to be pretty good and he was halfway through the second one by the time Al had finished Percy Jackson and completed his first nine reading hours and 377 pages.

They returned to Penrose Library to pick up their 1st level prizes - free coupons for Yo Yogurt and Del Taco. After a bit of arguing they settled for frozen yogurt and on their way to town Daniel noticed more changes at the deserted youth club. The graffiti were gone and so was the overgrown lawn. All the windows had been replaced with new ones and there was a new large double front door, too. High scaffolds covered the now yellow walls.

“Maybe they’ll turn it into a mall,” Al wondered.

“I think it’s too small for a mall. But maybe a big store. Or a medical center,” Daniel guessed.

“Hey, maybe there’ll be an opening party or something with free stuff.” Al perked up at that.

“Oh! That reminds me. You’re coming to my birthday party, right?” Daniel had already invited everyone else a while ago to make sure they could work the weekend into their schedules. It was still almost four weeks away, but anyone who worked at the SGC needed an early heads up. And even that wasn’t a hundred percent guarantee because at the SGC anything could happen on short notice. Like Lockdowns or any other crisis that required SG-1 and the CMO to be there. And Jack of course.

But he had made the reservation and crossed his fingers there wouldn’t be any emergencies at the mountain.

“Sure! I can’t believe it’ll save us from going to the Doc’s party!” Al reached out and they picked up speed as they high-fived each other. But when they stopped at the next traffic light, Al sobered and a shadow fell over his face. “I’m gonna miss her though.” Then he scowled. “Don’t tell anyone I said that!”

“Is your mom looking for a new therapist?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah. The Doc has recommended someone, I guess.” Al looked uncomfortable and Daniel felt a pang of sympathy for his friend. He hadn’t thought about a new therapist for himself yet. The Doc hadn’t brought it up in their sessions. At least not with him. He didn’t know if she’d talked about it to Jack. If she had, Jack hadn’t said anything to him, yet. But Daniel was confident. He didn’t really need a new therapist. He was good. Life was good.

“Maybe the new shrink is younger and prettier,” he joked.

“Who cares.” Al blushed and rode off at high speed when the traffic light jumped to green.

Daniel knew Al had carried a torch for the Doc when he’d started seeing her. Apparently that hadn’t changed.

When Daniel had caught up with his friend, Al said, “Bry hopes it’ll be a guy. He says lady shrinks are for babies. And mom thinks Bry needs a male role model.”

“What about your dad?”

“He keeps canceling his visits.” Al shrugged. “I don’t care, but Bry is pretty mad at him.” Then he changed the subject. “Are we gonna share a tent at your party?”

“Sure! But Jack’s going to insist Flyboy shares with us, too.”

“That’s cool. As long as he won’t drool on my face.”

“Nah, he sleeps with me.”

“Ohhh, he sleeps with youuu.” Al made kissing noises, then pretended to throw up. “Ewwww. Dog smooching, you pervert.”

“Idiot,” Daniel laughed.

He was really glad that Al got along so well with his dog now. His friend had been so scared of Flyboy at first, but now they were good friends. Not ‘rolling on the floor together’ friends, but Al always brought a treat for Flyboy and petted him. He even allowed the dog to lick his hands without being scared of germs. For Al that was as relaxed around an animal as he could get.

Twenty minutes later they were sitting on a knee high wall at a street corner of the pedestrian mall, eating their frozen yogurt – oreo cream - and watching people passing by. They could have taken one of the wooden benches, but that would have been uncool. Daniel figured it was okay to sit on the wall as long as no one chased them away. Going by his experiences kids were usually invisible to adults as long as they didn’t make too much noise or start a fight. Or were caught in places they weren’t supposed to be.

“What d’you want for your birthday?” Al asked.

Daniel thought about it for a moment. He didn’t think asking Al to bring food or drinks was considered being cool. He’d get a weird look and Al would probably say he was boring or sounded like his mom. Which was so not true. Daniel never sounded like Al’s mom. No one did, actually. Al’s mom was a piece of work.

“Don’t ask me to give you books,” Al warned. “Books are so totally on my black list this summer. Unless it’s physics or math.”

“Uh...” Daniel chewed on his bottom lip. Even though he was much more relaxed about celebrating and being the center of attention for no other reason than having a birthday, he still found it difficult to just tell people what kind of gifts he wanted. It had this weird faint taste of being selfish. He knew – in his mind – that it wasn’t selfish at all to say what he wanted, especially when asked, and he had gotten much better at it, but some old habits were hard to shake. And he still had trouble coming up with ‘normal’ things he wanted. Things normal for his apparent age.

“The DaVinci Code DVD,” he said and it almost came out like a question. “Or, uh, the Eragon movie.”

“Don’t ya want the new X-men...” Al started, then giggled. “Okay, stupid question. That’s what “I” want for my birthday.”

“Noted,” Daniel said, licking melted yogurt off his plastic spoon.

He loved frozen yogurt. It was one of his favorite dessert choices this summer. He also really liked this part of the Springs, especially in summer.

His gaze lingered on the sunny scenery, the colorful islands of flower beds at every corner and the small cafes lining the street. There was a lazy but steady flow of people coming in and out of the shops, taking a break and having ice cream or lunch at the restaurants or just wandering about the mall. Saturday afternoon strollers and leisurely shoppers. Families with chattering or whining kids, couples sharing an ice cream cone, teenage girls carrying small pink bags with the logo of a beauty store...

What he loved even more than his frozen yogurt was this freedom to go wherever he wanted to go. When Jack had finally expanded his bike radius shortly after Daniel’s 10th birthday it had been as if a door to the world had opened. A door to the mall, Sam and Pete’s house, Big Daniel’s house and the library. Basically that covered most places reachable by bike. Al had benefited from this, too, because his mom was inclined to let Al do most things Daniel was officially allowed to do.

“Mom would kill me if I had hair like that,” Al suddenly gasped beside him and Daniel followed his outstretched finger to _Jackpot Skateshop_ on the other side of the street. Three teens, two boys and a girl with skateboards, were standing at the window, looking at the newest skateboards.

The girl had a wild mop of seemingly unkempt hair in four different colors; a brilliant pink, sunny yellow, navy blue and a deep forest green. Basically it looked as if the girl had stuck her hand into a light socket and shocked herself. Daniel tried to imagine Al with hair like that and sniggered. His mom would have a heart attack, but Al would NEVER do anything even remotely like that to his hair.

“I so need a summer job to get new wheels,” one of the boys said longingly. He and his friend had cropped hair at the neck, but it was longer on the top. One of them was blond, one bottled black – a shiny raven-like color.

“Who cares about new wheels.” The girl sounded angry or frustrated. She carried a skateboard, too, but also a banner or a flag. Daniel saw sprayed-on letters, but couldn’t make out the words because it was rolled up and wedged under one of her skinny arms.

“Chill, Tara. There’s nothing you can do about it,” the black-haired boy said. “They're not opening and there weren’t enough people today to change that.”

“It’s because they didn’t pimp it. It should’ve been on the news and everywhere,” the blond boy added. “And the flyers we put up were taken down in a lot of places.”

“The Rainbow dudes announced it online,” his friend said as they started moving down the street. “And we put it on the school’s Facebook page but it got blocked.”

“Facebook doesn’t reach enough people. And only people interested in the first place would read about that online. Most folks don’t even know where to find stuff online. And the Gazette refused to print a real announcement. There was only a blurb in the paper this morning.”

“There was a TV van at the town hall and they did interviews,” Tara said, “and someone from the Gazette was there. But I bet it won’t make it into the evening news either. It'll get cut out or whatever.”

The blond boy said, “In the end it’s always about money. There’s not enough money, so the whole thing’s off and we’re the dumb losers.”

“Just the way things always are. I can’t wait to get out of this place. It makes me sick,” his friend agreed.

Tara stopped and with an angry, “But it’s not FAIR!” she threw away her banner. It sailed across the street and landed at the foot of the wall Daniel and Al sat on. “What are we, a bunch of freaks?”

“Yes,” blond-boy replied. “And we’ll turn all the good kids into freaks, too.”

“Like vampires.” His friend made a move on Tara as if he wanted to bite her and she pushed him away hard.

“You’re such idiots!” Even though her tone was aggressive, her voice was rather soft and melodic.

“Lighten up, Tink.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Yeah, let’s go skating,” the other guy suggested.

Tara... Tink? Daniel was trying to make the connection, but failed... huffed, “Call me Tink again and I’ll punch you.” But she laughed anyway.

She reminded Daniel of Lya, probably because of her wild hair and her almost elven features and alabaster skin. And he noticed her pierced left eyebrow. It was probably the anthropologist in him who registered these small things without even trying. But maybe it was because the piercing - a diamond shaped object in rainbow colors - was glittering in the sunlight as they walked by, pushing and nudging each other.

Her laughter was bubbly and hearty, like one would laugh on a warm, lazy summer day.

They were all dressed in cut offs and sneakers. And black T-shirts with rainbows on their backs and the words “Proud to be a Rainbow Kid” on the front. The girl was wearing several wristbands in different colors.

“I love the hair. It’s different,” he mumbled to Al, not taking his eyes off her as she put her skateboard on the ground and stepped on it, flexing the muscles in her tanned legs as she pushed off and rolled away, followed by her friends.

Daniel hopped down from the wall and, before he really knew what he was doing, called after her, “Hey, you forgot your banner!”

She looked back at him over her shoulder, giving him a somewhat sad smile. “Keep it or ditch it. No one cares anyway.”

He picked it up and opened the thin cord holding it together. When it unrolled he saw the pink and blue numbers and words sprayed on it. Daniel blinked and read aloud, “Five, Six, Seven, Eight, don't assume your kids are straight.” He took a couple of steps after her. “Wait!”

The three of them stopped, hopped off their boards, and turned around. They were probably 14 or 15, it was hard to tell. Daniel felt very small there for a moment and realized he had no business telling them what to do. But he also knew a lot more about life than these kids and if they wanted to beat him up or laugh at him, he could deal with that, too. He’d been there, done that, got the bruises... lots of them... and there was worse than that.

He held the banner – it was probably part of an old bed sheet or table cloth – out to them. “Giving up is for losers.”

“Hey, watch it, tiny,” raven-hair snapped.

“What do you even know?” the girl asked.

He talked to all of them, but his eyes settled on Tara or Tink or whatever her name was. “I know quitting gets you nowhere.”

She shrugged and snatched the banner out of his hand. “Whatever.” Her rainbow piercing caught the sunlight again and a tiny reflection of dancing colors appeared for just a blink of an eye.

Then she took off and her friends followed suit.

Daniel sat down again and watched her skinny figure vanish around a corner. He took a deep breath and placed his frozen yogurt tub strategically in his lap. He squinted into the sunlight and concentrated hard on the most boring thing he could imagine. It was his turn to do dishes tonight. Boring. Boring was good.

“Are you nuts? They could’ve knocked us on our butts,” Al blurted out.

“But they didn’t.”

“I don’t want to get in the way of punks like that.”

“They’re gone, it’s all good. No one got hurt.” Daniel almost laughed when he realized how Al’s whining helped with inappropriate preteen arousal. It was embarrassing, no matter how normal it was and even though everything down there was still too small to be noticed by others as long as he wasn’t in his underwear. Sometimes being this weird age was just as awkward as it had been the first time around. Fortunately moments like this came and went quickly.

“C’mon, let’s go look at some games,” he said to distract Al from his anxiety.

“I don’t have any money,” was the reluctant answer.

“We can play a little.” They always let kids try out games at the game store around the corner. Al kept dragging Daniel in there all the time. He loved that store just as much as the comic shop.

Playing games always worked to make Al happy and today was no exception.

For a while, as they shot at monsters and chased after treasures, Daniel’s thoughts lingered on that banner and he wondered what was the story behind it.

But by the time they hopped on their bikes again to go home, the rainbow girl with the bubbly laughter and her sparkling eyebrow piercing had already moved to the back of his mind as nothing but an interesting intermezzo on a lazy summer afternoon.

  
  


When he got home Jack’s truck was parked in the driveway and going by how clean the windows were and the way it sparkled Jack had spent the afternoon washing it. Jack had a strange liking for washing his truck and mowing the lawn or weeding in the backyard. He claimed it calmed him. Both Daniels thought that was a good thing because it meant they rarely had to do yard work and Jack even washed BD’s jeep sometimes.

He put his bike into the garage and slipped out the back door into the yard. Flyboy immediately bounded across the lawn to greet him. When they were done playing the smell of grilled meat led Daniel straight to the deck where Jack was flipping burgers and turning sausages.

BD slouched in one of the deck chairs reading today’s paper.

Jack raised the BBQ tongs in greeting and his left eyebrow in surprise. “No Al?”

Daniel scanned the table. Potato salad, a mix of tomato and Mozzerella and fresh bread. His belly rumbled in anticipation. “He went home to do chores. He does a lot of housework now that he gets paid for it.”

“Al gets paid for doing chores?” BD asked without looking up from his paper. “Lucky guy.”

“Bryan pays him for taking over his chores, yep.” Daniel picked one of the cherry tomatoes and flipped it into his mouth.

“Better paid than bullied,” he heard Jack say when he was on his way inside to wash his hands. It was a very strange relationship Al had with his brother. They had literally nothing in common, but somehow they had reached common ground and were getting along better.

When he returned Jack was reading something in the Colorado Springs Gazette over BD’s shoulder. “That was today. I saw some of those kids and their signs on my way to Walmart this morning. Some parents, too. But probably not enough to make a real riot outta it,” he said.

“This is a good thing. They have to stand up for their rights. It’s hard though. And apparently there wasn’t too much press to get people’s attention. This is the first I read about it.” BD pointed at the page. “Tiny announcement for something like that.”

“It’s kinda sad they have to stand up for those rights in the first place,” Jack said and went back to the grill.

“What’s sad? Who’s rights?” Daniel joined BD at the table and started shoveling potato salad on his plate. He had never been a big eater, but lately he sometimes worked up a real appetite. Maybe he’d have a growth spurt soon. That would be cool.

“There was a street protest downtown today for LGBT youth rights. Of course the Gazette is from this morning so it’s just the announcement and nothing about the actual event. I guess there’s more about it tomorrow. Or on the internet.” BD let Daniel take a look at the article.

It only said the protest would start at 10:00 am in front of the townhall. And something about an organization called “Rainbow Kids” and money issues and “... many concerned citizens who are opposed to letting an organization like that take residence in the Springs,” Daniel read aloud. “Wow. What a load of crap.”

“But not exactly unexpected,” BD said. “The Springs isn’t the most gay friendly town.”

“Rainbow Kids,” Daniel muttered as he remembered the skate kids he’d seen this afternoon.

_Five, six, seven, eight, never assume your kids are straight._

“I guess it’s a program for LGBT teens,” BD assumed. “Probably part of a bigger network for LGBTs in general.”

“Hey, you were downtown today, right? See anything?” Jack asked. He put a plate with sausages and burgers on the table and sat down across from the Daniels.

“Not much. Couple of kids wearing t-shirts with rainbows. They had a banner.” Daniel recited the slogan.

BD smirked. “Clever.”

“What’s the other one? One, two, three, four... open up the closet door?” Jack chuckled. “Has a ring to it, eh?”

“If we ever want to join LGBT protests, you’re going to design our banners,” BD deadpanned. “Or you could print t-shirts.”

“I can see it,” Daniel giggled, “Rainbow Warrior Jack O’Neill’s LGBT t-shirts are the hit of the summer. Sold out within minutes. You’ll make us rich, Jack.”

“Rainbow Warrior,” Jack grinned. “Has a ring to it, too.”

“I just made that up. Sounds better than military queer,” Daniel said.

“Major General Queer, please.” Jack raised his bottle. “To the rainbows and Oz.”

“Hail Dorothy.” BD toasted back and turned his attention to the paper again.

“We didn’t see anything of the actual protest,” Daniel said. “We spent all morning at the library.”

“Ah, how’s the reading program coming along?” Jack snatched a piece of bread from the basket and started eating little bits he tore off it.

“Well, we made it through level 1 and Al hasn't died of boredom. We’ll see how he does with the second Percy Jackson book. We have to find him something new for level three. There are only two Jackson books out so far.”

“Good luck with that,” Jack said, shaking his head.

Daniel focused on his food and didn’t reply to that. Jack thought he was spending too much time indulging Al and his high maintenance level. They had argued about this in the past, but Al was Daniel’s only kid-friend and for the most part they got along okay.

Daniel didn’t mind helping Al with some of his issues even though it wasn’t always easy or fun. He had a different perspective on things, a more grown-up view, and sometimes he felt like he was Al’s older brother.

Jack kept saying that was all good and true, but Daniel didn’t have to be Al’s nanny. And that support or selfless acts of friendship should work both ways. But in the end this was Daniel’s choice and that’s how all their conversations about Al ended. With Daniel saying helping Al was his choice and Jack nodding and scowling, but leaving it alone – until the next time it came up for some reason.

They started talking about different things soon, though, and by the time all the sausages, burgers and most of the salad were gone the Daniels were discussing translation work and Jack nagged at them to leave work at the mountain. He went as far as throwing his beer cap at BD who caught it and threw it back. It hit Jack square on the forehead, making Daniel laugh.

Jack blinked, rubbed his brow and said, “First you torture me with work-talk, now you throw things at me. Is that what they call domestic violence?”

“You started it,” BD said, unmoved.

“It was self-defense. It’s Saturday. Which is followed by Sunday. I have a free weekend to spend with you. I don’t want to listen to your...”

“Ah ah ah,” Daniel raised a finger, “Careful!”

“...educated theories, explanations, information, text analysis, language skills outside the mountain. I am the general, I can order you to stop it.” Jack looked smugly from one Daniel to the other.

Daniel and BD exchanged a gaze. “He didn’t say ramblings,” BD drawled.

“And he used really big words,” Daniel agreed.

“Civilized.” BD nodded.

“Think we can do him the favor of not having educated conversation in his presence?” Daniel tried his best not to laugh at Jack rolling his eyes.

“But he’s being bossy again,” BD muttered. “He used the ‘o’ word. He’s not supposed to use the ‘o’ word at home.”

Jack bent forward and gently banged his head on the wooden table. “Someone hear my plea for mercy. All I want is a weekend without briefing chatter.”

“Let’s have mercy,” Daniel giggled.

“And bring him another beer,” BD agreed and grabbed their plates as he stood.

They cleared the table together, but when Daniel started loading the dishwasher, BD said, “I’ll take over for you today. Why don’t you go back outside. Take Jack’s beer with you.”

Daniel shrugged and got a cold bottle of Heineken from the fridge. “Are you sure?” Then he frowned. “Am I in some kind of trouble?” He started a mental review of the last couple of weeks but couldn’t come up with anything that required a serious discussion.

BD rinsed the salad bowl and put it in the dishwasher. “No, no, I just thought you might want to sit with him and...” He pulled a face. “You’re not buying this, are you?”

“Err, no.” Daniel closed the fridge door. “What’s up? If this is about Al again, I’m not even going to...”

“It’s not about Al. Shouldn’t you just be happy I’m taking over KP duty?” BD held up the greasy BBQ tongs and made an ewww-face.

Daniel decided he could do that. “Thanks,” he said and gave BD a little wave with the bottle as he slipped out.

When Jack had opened his beer and Daniel had added just a spritzer of BD’s Merlot to his sparkling water, they sat in silence for a moment and watched the dog dozing in a sunny spot on the lawn.

Something was just a little off.

Daniel sensed it in the way Jack fiddled with the label of his bottle and pursed his lips. Building up to say something...

“Did you make the weekend reservation at the Garden yet?” Jack asked finally.

“Yeah, I did that last week. If something comes up...” He trailed off and sighed when the pieces fell together. “You're not going to be there.”

Jack winced and took a swig of his beer, stalling. Then he put his bottle down and said quietly, “There’s a meeting at Homeworld. Thor’ll be there. I can’t skip that.”

“Thor?” Daniel asked alarmed.

“Jacob, too,” Jack nodded and added quickly, “No big emergency, don’t worry.”

Daniel blew out a breath, but then thumped himself mentally over the head. “I know. If it was an emergency they wouldn’t schedule this four weeks in advance.”

“Ye-ah. I still can’t get out of it,” Jack grumbled. “And I tried. Believe me, I did.”

“Ori related?” Daniel tried to read in Jack’s face, but couldn’t find any indication of real worry. That was good.

Jack scowled. “Everything’s Ori related these days. And they’re going around in circles in DC, no matter from what angle they look at it. Right now there’s little we can do. But if those creeps are able to build supergates all over the galaxy, we’re screwed.”

“So, what’s going to happen?” Focusing on the matter at hand was better than thinking about having his party without Jack.

“Well, you know we managed to sabotage the first supergate we found before it was finished. But it’ll only be a matter of time before they’re going to try again. Homeworld is under pressure to come up with strategies to stop that from happening and the Joint Chiefs want to see action. So Jacob and Thor are going to be there, the NID will be there, the Joint Chiefs...”

“Big big BBQ,” Daniel said gloomily.

“Oh, yeah.”

The Ori threat was becoming very real even though Earth wasn’t in the direct line of fire. Yet. But more and more planets in their galaxy had fallen, or had been forced to fall, under the Ori prior’s spell. Daniel wasn’t kept in the loop as much as he liked to be, but he was getting enough intel to know what was going on.

He had been the one who'd discovered the tablet with the Ancient writings on where to find what was supposed to be an incredible treasure.

He remembered all too well how excited he’d been when he deciphered the tablet and found out it was written by an Ancient called Myrddin – better known as Merlin in the world of the myths and stories of King Arthur. He remembered how he had been the one – backed up by BD - talking Jack into letting SG-1 find the treasure. It had been here, on Earth, in Scotland. The Holy Gral could have been part of that treasure. It had been a big find.

Jack had sent them on their merry way and Daniel had even gotten permission to go with them. There had really been a treasure underneath Glastonbury Tor. To reach it they had to solve riddles, ran into a trap, almost got crushed by tons of rock and fight a holo knight with Excalibur’s sword. Jack hadn’t been amused at all at the debrief or when he’d read their reports later.

The crucial part of that treasure hunt had been the ancient communication stones. And the book that held the history of the Ancients. They had known most of what was in there and based on their vague knowledge of the Ori, the Daniels had strongly suggested not using the stones.

But Washington had insisted on making contact despite all warnings and against Jack’s flat refusal to activate the stones. What they had learned about the Ori in Atlantis and from Oma had been fragmentary, but alarming enough to stay out of their way.

To the brass at DC, however, the communication stones had been a possibility to make contact with real, living Ancients. It had been a chance to gain a powerful ally if there were Ancients left on their original home world. A chance to gather powerful technology.

They had made contact and let the devil in. Only a couple of months after the Goa’uld and the Replicators had finally been defeated.

“I can be there,” Jack said after a moment. “I have to be in DC early Saturday morning, but depending on how long they’re going to out-yell each other until they realize we’re not getting anywhere I could be back Saturday night or Sunday morning. This is gonna be a great way for Thor to study humans at their best... worst... whatever. And Selmak will think it’s hilarious. He loves shindigs like that. Especially if there’re snacks.”

“If there’s been no progress on finding a way to stop the supergates from popping up, why the meeting?” Daniel asked, frowning.

“What it’ll come down to is that the Asgard, the Tok’ra and we are going to monitor and patrol the galaxy for supergates. Which is something Thor, Jacob and I already agreed on, but Homeworld got orders from high up to give a detailed report and strategical plan on the whole Ori mess to the Joint Chiefs and the president. The president’s a busy man, so we’ll just go ahead and do what we agreed to do and clue him in on that meeting.”

The current president had been elected last fall and was still trying to wrap his head around the whole Stargate program. Daniel hadn’t met him, but Jack said the new guy was a bit anxious about it all. His predecessor had put great trust in the SGC and had given Hammond – and later Jack – a lot of leeway to run things their way. The new president was still trying to find his feet and trusted his own staff far more than anyone else.

Daniel was kind of glad he didn’t have to deal with much of this anymore. “What about Sam and BD? Teal’c? Do they have to go, too?”

“Since there’s no real breakthrough for any plans to stop or destroy the supergates, I don’t see why. Of course if Carter and Jacob come up with something soon...”

Daniel nodded. “I know. That’s okay.”

“I’m sorry, kiddo.”

Daniel shook his head. “It’s not your fault, so don’t even start apologizing. Even though I wish we could just tell those idiots in DC the Ori mess is all their fault and that they can deal with it.”

Jack raised his bottle and clinked it against Daniel’s glass. “Amen to that. Screw ‘em all.”

That was when BD joined them again. Jack poured him a glass of Merlot and they clinked glasses once more.

“You could call the Garden and see if you can switch to the weekend after your birthday,” BD suggested.

“I suppose. But I already invited everyone. And it’s summer, main season. I might not even be able to get a camping space the other weekend,” Daniel muttered. “I made the reservation over the internet. If I have to call them to get a refund or change times, they’ll want to talk to one of you guys.”

“I’ll call them. It’s the least I can do since I’m the party crasher,” Jack offered.

“Okay.” A sudden thought made him frown. “Uh, does postponing my camping trip mean I’ll be obligated to go to Doc Svenson’s farewell party? On my birthday?”

“It would be a nice touch. I bet she’d be delighted to see you there,” BD said teasingly.

“But she’ll understand that you don’t want to spend your birthday eating hot dogs and playing Twister or doing the egg and spoon race.” Jack shrugged.

“Yes, she’ll understand that, of course. She’s a shrink, after all. She gets stuff like that,” BD agreed.

“It’s your choice,” Jack said, “No strings.”

Daniel glared at them. BD squinted into his wine glass and Jack whistled for the dog.

“But you know I’m gonna do the right thing in the end because I’m one of the good guys... yadda?”

Jack and BD exchanged a look and then turned wide innocent eyes on him.

“Are you accusing us of manipulating you?” BD asked in shock.

Jack blinked slowly. “What?” Then he dropped the act and scowled at his partner. “Big you thinks it might give you closure to go. After all she’s been a pretty important part of your life.”

BD looked uncomfortable. “It was just a thought. And no one would seriously expect you to postpone your birthday because of it. But if you’re thinking of postponing anyway... ” He shrugged. “Jack is right, it’s entirely your choice.”

“I’m going to say goodbye. And thank her for all she’s done to help me.” Daniel was grateful for that. He knew he’d been a real headcase for a very long time and she had done a great deal to help him master this life.

“Us,” Jack said. “She’s helped all of us. Never ever thought I’d say that about a shrink, but there it is.”

BD nodded. “Yeah.”

They raised their glasses and bottle again to drink to Doctor Svenson. Daniel hoped she’d be happy in California.


	3. III

**III**

Two weeks later when they had completed level two and gone to pick up their prizes (one book for each, but Al let Daniel choose the books and gave him his) the former run-down youth club had risen like a phoenix from the ashes with fresh painted walls and a new lawn. Daniel instantly noticed the colorful rainbow painted on the front wall, covering all three stories.

The word PRIDE had been written underneath the curve of the rainbow.

On their way back they took the short cut and there was a brand new basketball field and a small skate park at the back of the club.

“Looks like they’re going to open after all,” Daniel pointed out.

Al snorted. “Nope. Mom said they ran outta money so it’s probably never gonna happen.”

Daniel recalled the LGBT protest march being on the local news a couple days after it had taken place. The promised aid money for Rainbow Kids had been cut down to half of what they’d been expecting and they were now looking for sponsors. He also remembered an interview with the representative from Rainbow Kids on how important the center was for kids from this area.

Daniel stopped his bike. “But it’s almost finished. They already put a lot of money and work into it.”

Al stepped on his brakes, too, and together they stared at the new basketball basket. “Mom says there have been complaints from worried citizen. Petitions and stuff. Maybe now they’ll turn it into a center for normal kids.”

“What do you mean; normal kids?” Daniel didn’t like where this was going. He also vowed not to start a fight about this.

“Normal kids, no queers and punks,” Al said.

“Don’t call them queers. Or punks,” Daniel admonished his friend when he got back on his bike. So much for not starting a fight. He bit his lip and picked up speed.

“Why not? That’s what they are.” There wasn’t even real resentment, it was just what he’d heard and learned to call them, probably from his moron of a brother.

The linguist in Daniel wanted to start a lecture about the actual meaning of ‘queer’ - being a strange, weird person; not the norm. He had learned to curb that urge to some degree and just let things go, especially when it came to Al. Al was 11. Really 11. So some things just weren’t worth the argument.

Yet...

“They’re just as normal or weird as most people,” he said when they stopped at the next traffic light.

“No, they’re not. They don’t want to be normal or they’d be straight like other people,” Al insisted.

“You think not being straight is a choice?” Daniel blurted out.

Al shrugged. “Dunno. But it’s weird.”

Daniel snapped, “You keep complaining about others calling you a weirdo and a nerd. You should know there’s no such thing as ‘normal’ normal.”

“That’s different,” Al said in a quite reasonable voice. “We’re geek-weird. That means we’re just smarter than most kids our age and they hate us for it. But once we’re grownups, we’ll fit in.”

“Fit in,” Daniel echoed.

“Yeah. I can’t wait to go to college and get a real cool job. No one makes fun of a physicist or a mathematician,” Al explained with so much fervor that Daniel didn’t have the heart to burst that bubble.

Instead he swallowed all his annoyance and changed the subject. “I had to postpone my birthday party. It’ll be the weekend after my birthday now. Jack has to go to DC on the 8th.”

Somehow Jack had managed to get a camping space for the weekend after his birthday. It wasn’t the same space Daniel had reserved, but still a good one. Cassie and Dominik had to cancel for that weekend, but everyone else would be there.

Al groaned. “Oh, no. That’s awful. Mom’s gonna make me go to the Doc’s party then. Don’t dooo that to me, Daniel.”

They reached their suburban neighborhood and could ride next to each other on the rather quiet streets. Al gave Daniel a long and pleading look.

“Sorry, but I really want him to be there,” Daniel said.

“Okay, but will you go to that stupid party with me then?”

Daniel sighed. “Dunno. It’s still my birthday. Maybe Daniel, Sam and Murray will want to go to lunch or dinner.”

“It’ll just be for a couple of hours,” Al pushed on.

“Maybe,” he muttered. “We’ll see.”

When they reached Al’s street, Daniel made a fast retreat, saying he had chores to do. He didn’t want to look at Al’s new comics or play games. He just wanted to be alone and not have to listen to any of Al’s chatter.

He rode his bike home, locked it away and found the house deserted. Jack and BD had taken the dog on a hike in the woods around the mountain.

Usually he got a huge kick out of being home alone. It was a fairly new development and while he never did anything overly exciting or different when Jack and BD were out, he still loved the feeling of having the house to himself for a couple of hours. It was one of the adult privileges he had been forced to give up after his downsizing. But now he had regained that freedom little by little and Jack’s only hard and fast rules about being alone in the house – especially at night - was to turn the alarm system on and to text them if he was going out or came home.

Today Daniel kinda wished he’d gone with them instead of hanging out with Al. They had asked him to come along this morning, but he had wanted to go to the library. But then he hadn’t known Al would be so annoying today.

Irritated, Daniel grabbed a Coke Zero from the fridge and slouched on the couch in the living room. He sent a text to Jack, saying he was home, and switched on the TV. After a round of zapping which didn’t lift his mood, he turned it off again and went into the basement where he and Al used to do their workouts. But Al had stopped exercising as soon as the issues with his brother had been solved and now it was only Daniel’s gym room – and Jack’s when washing the truck or mowing the lawn didn’t serve their calming purpose. BD did most of his workouts at the SGC.

He considered having a go at the punching bag or torturing himself on the stepper, but something kept niggling at the back of his mind and finally he went upstairs again, to his room, and opened the laptop.

He did some research on Rainbow Kids and the more he read, the more he became engrossed in websites and blogs. When he finally closed the laptop, his mind was busy sorting through all the information and he was in a strange mood. Not really mad at Al anymore, but not great either. He had just discovered that while times were definitely different from when he had been growing up, they hadn’t changed as much as he’d thought. Or more to the point; times had changed, but not necessarily for the better?

He wasn’t sure what to think. He hadn’t walked through his life with his eyes closed, but he had never thought about what it was like to grow up being gay, bi or even transgender. He knew about the problems of gays in the military, had experienced DADT first hand – was still sort of living with that now – but he’d never realized how difficult it could be to find out about not being straight as a kid or a teen. He hadn’t realized he was bi until he’d realized what kind of feelings he had for Jack.

Or maybe he had known before, on a subconscious level, and just never dealt with it because there had always been more important things and he had never given his sexuality much thought beyond the fact that he’d had a girlfriend every once in a while.

But now? Now he was a kid again. Not even a teenager yet. And he knew what he was. Because he’d lived through all those experiences before and he didn’t think the downsizing had changed his orientation, even though he hadn’t had his first real crush on anyone yet. Those vague, embarrassing little moments of awakening that weren’t really connected to anything in particular, yes. But not a real crush, neither on a boy or a girl. Not that he met a lot of boys and girls in the first place...

Of course he knew his body was just getting ready to change. In two years or so he’d have to deal with voice change, body hair, pimples, hormones, ejaculations... the whole shebang. And while he dreaded all of that a little, he knew it was normal. As normal as being attracted to both sexes had always been to him ever since he’d found out.

He would never have to think about his ‘coming out’ to his family, to the people that mattered most to him because they already knew from before. Having to live a lie for the military was bad enough, but if you couldn’t tell your parents or your friends? If you had to hide from everyone – or live with being shamed, maybe kicked out of your home, sent to a shrink for conversion therapy? Be forced to stay in the closet by your own family to avoid neighbors talking?

He didn’t know what that was like, but he had a good inkling. He’d grown up – the first time around – being different, too. Being a no-fit-in. And opposed to what Al might think growing up didn’t always mean you suddenly ‘fit in’. Daniel had learned that the hard way until he’d come to the conclusion that ‘fitting in’ wasn’t necessarily a good thing. That being yourself weighed a lot more, was a lot more satisfying, than fitting in even though it wasn’t always the easiest way.

But it had been a tough learning curve and he’d had to learn that lesson alone, with no one there to back him up or encourage him when he had gotten kicked while he’d already been down. During his growing up years, his college years … pretty much until Doctor Jordan had taken Daniel under his wing during his time at the Oriental Institute in Chicago.

Daniel felt restless and fidgety all of a sudden. He knew the signs. Shadows of his past creeping up on him like monsters who’d been hiding in the corner of a small boy’s bedroom until the darkest hour of the night.

But these monsters were just little monsters nowadays; they had lost a lot of their hold on Daniel and he had learned how to get rid of them – even when Flyboy or Jack and BD weren’t around to ground him. Daniel took several calming breaths and stood to feel the solid ground under his feet.

He slipped out of his jeans and tee and into shorts and a muscle shirt. He got a bottle of water from the kitchen, then went downstairs to work out after all. Sometimes his mind untangled itself while he was on the stepper or beating the punching bag or doing some of the martial arts moves Teal’c had shown him years ago.

He had never appreciated any kind of sports when he’d grown up the first time and it had been a long journey from being sort of forced to exercise to actually enjoying it. But he’d done a lot of working out and running – not always voluntarily – when he’d been a full member of SG-1. And once he had started using the gym again as a boy he’d found he really got something out of it. He didn’t do it every day, but he came down here often enough to call it regular. When he was moody or had an argument with General Cranky he came down here, too. Sometimes Jack sent him to the basement to get things ‘out of your system’ - and that probably bottom lined the purpose of the gym.

Today he went for his Lok'nel moves. He didn’t feel like punching the bag or exhausting himself on the stepper. He needed a clear head. Lok’nel was a Jaffa version of Tai Chi, but Daniel had never bothered to look up the differences. It had to do with body control and collecting ones' mind and more importantly – it worked.

  
  


Two hours later, when Jack and BD came home with a tired but happy dog in tow, Daniel was up at his tree house. He was lying on the small porch, gazing at the rich green foliage of leaves lazily wafting in the summer breeze. There were glimpses of the blue sky and sturdy brown branches here and there, but mostly it was a soothing mix of lime and olive green and some shades of very dark green, depending on how the rays of the evening sun played with the colors.

He heard footsteps on the stairs, but didn’t move and only blinked when BD’s face appeared in his line of vision.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Daniel said. He had pushed his glasses to the top of his head so the greens, blue and browns were just a little bit soft focused.

“Jack is cooking so dinner will be ready soon. Uh... what are you doing?”

“Thinking.”

“Big thoughts?”

Daniel considered saying it was nothing and he’d be down for dinner. But he wasn’t done yet and maybe he needed to actually talk about this later. “Mmmh. Not hungry.”

BD frowned down at him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

There was a little snort and a head shake and Daniel almost smiled. “No, really, I’m...”

“Okay. We’ll leave something to eat for you.” BD retreated. Daniel heard him whistle for the dog and then he was alone again.

Ideas started taking vague shape, were disregarded, then morphed into other ideas. He wasn’t sure why, but the more he thought about this, the more he felt this was something he had to do. Like he’d known he had to help Al with his bullying issues two years ago. He blinked at the calming shades of green and tried to shake off the very strong feeling of foreshadowing. Like this was another turning point in his life even though he had no idea what that meant right now.

He sighed and sat up, peering down into the yard where Jack and BD were sitting at the table on the deck with what was left of their dinner. He was pretty sure they were talking about him. About what he was working up to and whether it was something good or worrying.

Daniel pulled his legs up to his body, wrapped his arms around them and rested his chin on his knees, trying to gauge their reaction to his plans.

BD would think it was something good.

Jack? He wasn’t sure about Jack. Jack might have objections and he might even try to talk him out of this or make him think about it. He wouldn’t flatly deny it – couldn’t flatly deny it because when it came down to it, it was Daniel’s choice. But he’d probably try to negotiate, make deals, set boundaries. All in Daniel’s best interest of course.

He sighed. He could… theoretically... just do what he intended to do without discussing it with Jack. He had every right to do it and ride out the storm later. Jack would eventually understand. At least Daniel knew Jack wouldn’t mess with this once it had been done.

He could just go inside, open his laptop and do it, explain later and...

“Knock knock?”

Daniel looked up, startled. He hadn’t even heard him coming up the stairs. “Who’s there?” he played along on auto pilot.

“Ken Tuck,” Jack leaned on the banister.

Daniel frowned. “Ken Tuck, who?”

“Ken Tuck-ey fried chicken.” Jack clambered up the last two steps, bowed and placed a plate with fried chicken picks, mashed potatoes and peas on the board floor next to Daniel. “Voilá, _bon appetite_ , it’s great, tastes like...”

“Chicken,” Daniel guessed and changed his sitting position. He stuck his feet through the gaps in the porch banister and let his legs swing. “Thanks.”

“Actually, they taste like nothing with greasy breading, but they were on top of what was in the freezer and you know I’m a lazy cook. The mashed potatoes are good.”

“Instant?” Daniel eyed his plate suspiciously.

“Betty Crocker, Yukon gold.” Jack made it sound like it was the finest gourmet cuisine one could imagine.

“Yay.” Daniel picked up plate and fork. He wasn’t hungry, but decided humoring his guardian was going to pave the way for his next steps. He took a bite, chewed and swallowed. Nothing with breading nailed it perfectly. “It’s great.”

Jack’s left eyebrow wandered upwards. “Uh-huh. Want me to vamoose or...”

Daniel shook his head. “No. Uh, unless BD and you have plans...”

“Big you has found something exceptionally boring on TV he wants to watch.” Jack settled down beside Daniel. His feet almost reached the branches closest to the tree house platform. His legs were still considerably longer than Daniel’s.

But soon. Soon he’d have one of those major growth spurts boys were supposed to have during puberty. Well, okay, not soon. He’d probably have to wait a couple more years, but at least he WAS growing now, slowly but surely. Between being seven and nine he had sometimes felt he’d be forever “short for his age” as Janet had called it.

“How was your day?” Jack asked. “Anything exciting?”

“Just the library again. How was your hike?”

“Nice. It’s much cooler up there. We saw a moose pretty close up and your dog almost went on a squirrel hunt.”

“How come it’s always _my_ dog when he gets into trouble?” Daniel asked. “I wasn’t even there.”

Jack grinned. “Funny thing, Big D keeps saying he’s my dog when he’s in trouble.”

Daniel smirked and continued eating his dinner, trying to come up with his opening line. Finally he settled for the usual. “Jack?”

“Daniel?”

He almost laughed. It was such an automatic mechanism, the way they opened so many of their more serious conversations. Almost like a ritual or a code. Daniel placed his mostly empty plate on the warm wooden planks beside him. He pulled his glasses off his head, used the hem of his t-shirt to clean them and put them on his nose.

Jack leaned back on his elbows and gazed up at the rustling leaves... waiting.

“Did anyone... when you were growing up... did anyone ever explain to you about being gay? Or bi? Was there anyone you could talk to? When you realized you were different?” He didn’t think there was a positive answer to that. Jack had been a child of the fifties. Even compared to the sixties and seventies that seemed to be like the dark ages.

Jack turned his head and gave him a curious look. Or maybe surprised. Or maybe he was starting to worry a bit. Daniel couldn’t tell. He added quickly, “Don’t panic. I’m not exactly capable of having sex yet.”

Jack snorted. “I’m pretty confident you won’t need any advice on that when the time comes.”

“Uh, no.”

“And I’m not panicking. Just didn’t expect this.”

“You don’t have to start humming the Twilight Zone theme,” Daniel said with a little snort of his own.

Jack said, “Actually, my dad gave me some... advice, if you want to call it that.”

That didn’t sound good. “Did he know you were...”

“No. No one in my family knows. It never came up.” Jack shrugged and continued, “There was a guy at my school. Great guy. Everybody’s darling, Minnesotan poster boy. Captain of the hockey team, had a big bright future. People said he was going to play for the NHL. He got all the girls and all the kudos. He dated the homecoming queen, but I bet that guy featured in many wet dreams of boys and girls alike.”

“Yours, too?” He couldn’t help it, he had to ask.

“I thought that’s stuff kids never want to know about their parents,” Jack countered.

Daniel refrained from answering and just rolled his eyes.

“Okay, yeah, I had a crush on him. I was around fifteen and he was probably my first man crush. It was awkward, but what can you do? I had crushes on girls, too, so I didn’t worry about it that much. Didn’t tell anyone either though. You just didn’t talk about that back then.”

“What happened?” There was a point to all this or Jack wouldn’t have brought it up.

“The Captain of the hockey team got caught in the shower making out with another guy.”

Daniel’s eyes widened. “He made out with another guy in the showers at school?”

“Ice rink. After hockey practice.”

“Was he stupid or just too horny to think straight?”

“Who knows. He was sixteen. Maybe he thought being the star of the community, the future NHL champion, would protect him from all troubles.” A shadow fell over Jack’s face when he continued. “He was wrong about that. Flushed his bright future down the drain. They kicked him off the team, suspended him from school, took away all his other privileges.”

“Wow. What happened to him later?”

“They moved away the same year. Don’t know where he is now. I guess if it had just been the coach walking in on them he might have kept quiet about it. Brandon was his star, after all. But it was him and a bunch of other boys and he couldn’t have kept it from spreading like wildfire even if he’d tried.”

“That’s sad.”

“It’s how it was.” But Jack sounded bitter. “Of course everyone talked about it. It was a scandal, an outrage. And probably the most exciting thing that ever happened in our sleepy little town. We were three boys at home, all rink rats. We discussed it over dinner and everyone had an opinion about it. Dad finally put an end to it by saying Brandon was a great hockey player and nothing he’d done could change that. Then he said if one of us ever felt like going with guys we better remember what happened to Brandon. And if that didn’t keep us from doing it we should at least make sure no one ever found out about it.”

“Yeah.” Daniel peered down at the patches of grass he could see through the branches of the tree. Flyboy appeared in his line of vision, carrying a frisbee in his mouth. “You’d think it was different now, huh?”

“Oh, I think it’s very different. Kids today know all the stuff or know where to look for information. There’s a whole different kind of attitude around sexuality. Well, maybe not if you’re from the buckle of the bible belt...”

“...or from a military town,” Daniel threw in.

“But even there you can find help if you’re looking for it. At the very least you can get online help.”

“But if your family or your school isn’t behind you, you need more than online help. When you have no one to talk to or are just told to keep it in the closet... when you have no support from the people around you... Where do you go? Where do you turn to when you find out and you’re just 14, 13 or even younger?” Daniel felt Jack’s eyes on him and turned to look at his friend and surrogate father. “There are kids out there who have nowhere to go with these kind of problems. Kids who are pushed into isolation or shamed. Did you know that LGBT teens and young adults have one of the highest suicide and suicide attempts rate? The same goes for drug uses and depression. The numbers are there, I can show them to you. It’s different from when you or even I grew up, but it’s not really better. Not everywhere and not as much as it should be.” He took a deep breath, realizing he was talking himself into a frenzy. He winced. “Okay... That was...”

“Daniel in Daniel-mode,” Jack deadpanned.

“You do know this isn’t about me, right? I know I’m very fortunate to live in a rainbow family. I won’t ever be in trouble here for being bi.”

“Rainbow family? Did you just make that up, like the rainbow warrior?” Jack asked.

“No, it’s what they call it. Same gender parents. Rainbow family. And there’s an organization called Rainbow Family. It’s another branch of the Rainbow Network.”

“Rainbow Network?”

“Yeah, they have support centers for LGBTs of all kinds.”

“Someone did some research,” Jack concluded, then smiled, “So, we’re a rainbow family.”

“Yeah. I know you and Daniel can’t get married and coming out to the world at large is out of the question, but we are still a family.”

“For me and Daniel, yes. You, on the other hand... you’re free to come out to anyone you want to. You know that, right? If you want to wear a t-shirt that says; I’m coming out of the closet... or whatever...” Jack looked grim all of a sudden. “They can arrest me for loving the wrong gender, but they can’t force my kid to live by the same laws.”

Daniel smiled. “See, that’s why I think I’m a lucky guy.”

“Well, coming out is something only you can decide, but as you just said, it won’t make life any easier. And is this something you want to do for yourself or to make a stand?”

Daniel shook his head. “Oh no, I told you it’s not about me...”

“That’s what you said when you were so gung-ho on helping Al with his bully of a brother,” Jack said quietly. “I don’t know where this is going, but if it’s connected with your first childhood or teen years, it’s definitely about you.”

Daniel bit his lip and swung his legs a bit more forcefully. “It’s not connected to me directly, but...” He took another deep breath. “I want to donate money to the Rainbow Kids Center.”

“Ah. It’s all about the rainbows.”

“You know that protest march about LGBT youth rights from a couple of weeks ago? That was about Rainbow Kids. They built a center for LGBT youths. I saw it; it’s on my way to the library and it looks like a cool place. It’s almost finished, but then the promised aid money got cut in half and now they might never open.”

“It was on the news. Why are you so invested in this? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for giving kids a place to hang out and get help...”

“Because it’s important. It’s important kids have someplace to go. A place that keeps them off the streets, offers them a sanctuary. The Rainbow Kids Center could be such a place. They have people there to teach kids about safer sex and PTSD if there’s been abuse in their lives. There’re mediators and social workers to help with family issues. But they also offer classes like self defense or arts, dance or music and theater. They have movie nights and a chess club and all kinds of stuff. It’s not just another youth club...”

“They’re giving troubled kids a home away from home,” Jack concluded and there was understanding dawning in his brown eyes.

“Yes! Well, not just troubled kids, but LGBT kids and teens. From age 11 upwards.” Daniel had never had a home away from home, except maybe the library.

He’d never felt safe anywhere, especially not when he had lived with the Wrexlers. And while his own outsider status hadn’t been about his sexuality, he still wished he’d had a place where he could have gone and – even though he might not have talked to social workers – felt safe and accepted. Remembering what Al had said to him this morning he added. “A place where they won’t have to ‘fit in’ totally against their nature just to appear ‘normal’.”

“I get it.” Jack gave him a long look. “So... not about you, eh?”

Sometimes it was great when Jack just ‘got’ him. Other times... not so much. He gave Jack a one shoulder shrug and a snappish, “Doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“No, probably not.” After a pause, Jack asked, “How much money are we talking here?”

Daniel straightened up as if he was preparing for a physical blow. “Everything. My savings.” He gave Jack what he hoped was an unyielding but not too aggressive look.

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it. They locked eyes for a moment and finally Jack let out a slow breath and leaned back on his elbows again, gazing at the foliage of leaves as if he was praying for strength or patience or trying to wrap his head around all this.

“That’s a helluva lot of money,” was what finally came out of his mouth.

“I know.” Daniel still got paid for his work at the SGC. His paycheck wasn’t as big as it used to be before the downsizing, but it was still more than enough.

And he didn’t have the same expenses anymore. No car, no house, no taxes... He paid Jack a bit of gas money, took care of his own phone bill and paid for his clothes and his Amazon shopping. He threw in some money for groceries or paid the pizza delivery guy sometimes. But compared to before that was just peanuts. So over the last four years he’d piled up a lot of money, plus interest.

Jack pursed his lips and said, “Okay.”

Daniel blinked, then blinked again. “Okay?”

He had made up so many reasonable points in his head to convince Jack, he was almost – just almost – disappointed now.

Jack stood and reached a hand down to pull Daniel to his feet. “Okay as in; okay, let’s talk about this.”

Aha, here it was. “I fleshed it all out. There’s not much to talk about.”

“Just...” Jack raised a finger. “Hear me out, okay? It’s all I’m asking for. Let’s go look at your savings and figure out a smart way of doing this.”

Daniel didn’t want to be talked into reconsidering his decision. He had made up his mind and intended to go through with this. But he had to acknowledge Jack’s effort to keep an open mind here.

 _Act civilized, no tantrums_ , he reminded himself. “Okay.”

Jack patted his shoulder and they descended the stairs.

They entered the house and found BD sharing the couch with the dog, both fast asleep. “Told him it was boring,” Jack smirked and turned the TV off. He grabbed the afghan and pulled it over the sleeping pair even though it was rather warm everywhere in the house. To Daniel he said, “Let’s move this to the kitchen.”

He got the laptop and a moment later they were at the kitchen table, looking into Daniel’s bank account. As his legal guardian, Jack was the co-owner of the account, but hadn’t set any restrictions or parental limits for Daniel.

And once Daniel had proved that – despite all his adjusting issues – he was still able to be responsible and mature with his money, Jack had stopped checking the account regularly. However, because he was a kid and under 13, the bank would automatically send Jack notice if Daniel transferred more than a certain amount of money from his account in one go.

“You want to donate all this to the Rainbow Kids Club?” Jack asked guardedly, his voice not giving away how he felt about it.

“Yes. I don’t know if it will be enough, but hopefully it will cover some of their expenses and help them to open the club.”

“Daniel...” There was just a bit of desperation now, “this is enough to get you through college, buy you a house or get you settled in Egypt when you’re big again.”

“Why would I go to college?” Daniel asked, confused. He had three degrees, the Air Force had promised to give them back to him officially once he was old enough. Meaning he’d get the papers to give him his three legal PhDs again.

“Has it ever occurred to you that you might want to do something different this time around? You could start over. Get a degree in... I don’t know... social studies or history.”

“Err. Nope.”

“Maybe not now, but what about two or three years from now? You give away all this money... which includes your savings from _before_ you were shrunk... and you have to start over from scratch.”

“Most kids my age don’t have savings like this,” Daniel countered. “And I’m getting paychecks every month. It won’t be too hard to save money again.”

“Wasn’t part of this money meant to build a life here for you and Sha’uri?” Jack asked.

“Yes, but that didn’t happen. And then I kept that money because we wanted to buy a boat and travel once we’d both be retired. And that’s not gonna happen either.”

“But you’re going to move out one day, do your own traveling, want a car. Or maybe have a family. Say, you donate half of this, or two thirds? I want you to consider keeping at least some for yourself, for your own future.”

“Jack, I’ll save up again. You won’t have to worry about me living out of your pocket for the rest of my life.”

“There goes my retirement home in Florida,” Jack sighed. “I was counting on you to pay for that.”

“Sorry,” Daniel chuckled. “But you’d hate it in Florida. There’re snakes there. Big ones.”

“It’s warm in Florida.”

“Humid.”

“Fine, you win. About Florida.” Sobering, Jack rubbed a hand through his short silver hair. “Look, kiddo, I know this is your money and I can’t really tell you what to do with it. And I appreciate it that you talked to me first instead of just doing it and giving me a heart attack when the bank called to ask if you were really authorized to make that kind of transaction.”

Daniel looked at his hands, fighting the blush he felt creeping into his face. “I, uh, considered it. But I figured talking to you first seems less like a knee jerk reaction and the more... grown up thing to do.”

“It sure helps with my blood pressure. A little.” Jack squinted at the laptop again. “Can I convince you to think it over for a couple of days?”

“No.”

“Daniel...” It was almost a plea and a bit of a comical whining.

“Hey, wha’s goin’ on?”

They looked up as BD walked in, his eyes still half closed and his hair sticking out from the back of his head. Yawning he shuffled over, grabbed a bottle of water from the counter and slumped down at the table.

“Daniel here wants to be the savior of the rainbow.”

BD rubbed his eyes and opened his bottle. “Huh?”

“Rainbow Kids,” Daniel said.

“The LGBT club?” BD bent forward, suddenly much more awake. “I heard they might not be able to open.”

“I want to help.” Daniel exchanged a look with his counterpart. No words needed. There was immediate understanding in the blue eyes meeting his.

“By giving them all your money.” Jack sounded as if the whole meaning of this was just really sinking in. He waved at BD. “There’s your voice of reason, Danny-boy. Listen to it.”

“It’s important,” Daniel insisted, trying not to be too defensive. But couldn’t they see?

“How much money do you have?” BD asked.

Daniel shoved the laptop over to him. BD took a look and let out a low whistle. Then he said, “You should call them and ask how much they need. To be able to open. Maybe it’s less than you have or maybe it’s a hell of a lot more. Figure out if it’s at all possible to make this work before you just transfer all your savings to them.”

“If they can’t open here, it’ll still help all the centers they already have,” Daniel objected.

“I’d still call them. See what you’re dealing with. And then decide.” BD took another sip of his water. “You can just donate everything you have, but I would want to make sure my money ends up exactly where I want it to be.”

Jack glared across the table. “That’s not the voice of reason I had in mind.”

BD shrugged. “If in a year or two, or three, the Ori show up here and everything goes to hell, that money won’t help him. But it can make a difference to a lot of kids now.”

“Right. Why don’t we all donate our money, move to the Nox planet and live on tree juice and flowers,” Jack bitched, his temper getting the better of him after all.

BD pinched the bridge of his nose. His voice was still a bit raspy from sleep, but Daniel thought he was maybe working up to a headache, too. Never a good combination to start arguing with him. “Daniel doesn’t need that money right now and he can start saving again. If nothing happens...”

“The Ori aren’t a direct threat to Earth right now. And we kicked the Goa’uld’s asses, we can kick theirs, too...”

“...he’ll be fine by the time he’s ready to move out.”

“See? My voice of reason has spoken.” Daniel gave Jack a look of victory.

“Voice of reason my ass. You do know I can just lock that bank account down to make sure your money stays where it belongs.”

There was a long heavy silence after that while Daniel struggled with his own temper and tried to decide if Jack was serious. He glanced at BD who sat there, eyes boring into Jack like hard blue lasers.

“I know you can. But you won’t,” Daniel said finally. Because that would be crossing the line.

Jack’s glare lingered for another moment, then softened and faded away. “No, of course not.” He sounded defeated now and Daniel was pretty sure this was one of those moments where Jack wished he was just an ordinary kid with ordinary allowance money and harmless hobbies and who could care less about LGBT rights.

BD cleared his throat and picked up the conversation like Jack’s little outburst hadn’t happened. “All I’m saying is that you never know what’s going to happen. But right now he’s in the position to help and to make more money as he grows up because he has a real job that pays well.”

Jack buried his face in his hands and shook his head. “You’re both total nutcases.”

BD nodded. “That’s why you fit in so well with us, Jack.” Turning his attention back to Daniel, he said, “You know, if you really want to give this a go, there’s probably something they need even more than your money.”

“Yes,” Jack grumbled, “ _All_ our money. Not gonna happen.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel ignored Jack for the moment.

“What I got from the news is that it’s not just a money issue. They’re not wanted here because people are afraid their kids might be corrupted or whatever. What Rainbow Kids really needs are supporters. Not politicians or protesting kids. They need parents, they need groups of people who can spread the word that this isn’t some kind of creepy club that will turn all teens into gays. They need a way to let people know what kind of work they’re doing. How their other centers work. That kind of thing.”

Daniel blinked. He hadn’t even thought this far. “What do you mean? How?”

But suddenly it all fell together so fast, like a tornado of ideas, and a plan began to take shape with amazing speed.

BD just said, “If you’d call them you could ask how to help. Maybe...”

But Daniel jumped from his chair and yelled, “I know! I have the perfect plan! I need to call Svenson. And everyone I invited to my birthday... and make plans. And and and...” He zipped around the table and was on his way out the door to get his phone, but Jack was still faster and Daniel found himself back in the kitchen and on his chair with two firm hands on his shoulders.

“Sit. Talk.”

Daniel tried shaking Jack’s hands off. “Don’t talk to me like that, I’m not Flyboy.”

“I’m never telling the dog to talk. So?”

Daniel tried looking past Jack at BD for help. “Tell him to let me go.”

BD smiled, but shook his head. “Before you start calling people and making plans it might be a good idea to clue us in.”

Daniel sighed, but nodded and accepted defeat on this one. When Jack had sat back down, he started explaining. When he was done, he noticed surprise and open admiration on BD’s face while Jack didn’t give anything away and just played with BD’s water bottle.

“I think calling the Rainbow people is a good idea, too,” Daniel said after a pause. “But...” He gave Jack a careful nudge.“I’m just a kid. They won’t take me seriously or listen, if it’s just me.”

Jack shook his head. “Nuts, both of ya.” Then he waved Daniel off. “Go, get the phone. Let’s see if they have use for your money.”


	4. IV

**IV**

Daniel tried not to fidget. The brush tickled him and the paint felt kind of slippery and cold on his skin, but he had to hold still. Just a couple of minutes longer.

“You don’t have to hold your breath, you know?” Sam laughed as she continued working on his ‘tattoo’. “Just don’t move your arm too much. It looks really great.”

He squinted down at his arm where a rainbow was taking shape. It looked more like a rainbow snake because it wrapped around his wrist. It did look kinda... cool. The body painting booth had been Sam’s idea and she had also been the one talking him into getting a rainbow tattoo.

Next to them Janet worked on a girl. She couldn’t be older than five and Daniel tagged her as a sibling or relative of one of Doctor Svenson’s patients. Or her folks had seen the sign at the front of the house, the invitation to join the party, and decided to stop by.

The Doc usually worked with kids aged eight and upwards.

“Almost done, sweetie,” Janet said, then glanced over at Daniel. “Now look at you, Daniel, that’s a nifty tattoo.”

“Really?” He held up his arm, but Sam grabbed it and kept it steady.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“I like it,” the little girl said. “Looks shiny.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you.”

There were already lots of kids running around with rainbow colored faces, arms or legs. Everyone could choose where they wanted their rainbows. Most of the little ones wanted them on their cheeks or all over their face and most of the older kids chose an arm.

Even some of the adults were wearing a tattoo, which was amazing.

This whole day was amazing.

Daniel couldn’t believe how spectacular it all turned out. He was tempted to pinch himself all the time.

He looked around and there seemed to be happy people everywhere. The Rainbow Kids’ booth, smack in the middle of Doc Svenson’s huge yard, was drawing a lot of attention. They were handing out colorful leaflets with information on the Rainbow Network and Rainbow Kids in particular, including several hotline numbers for kids and parents to seek help. They were also offering everyone buttons with slogans like ‘I’m a rainbow kid and proud of it’ or ‘Rainbow Kids Pride’. Two guys from the organization answered questions and explained the purpose of the youth club to curious or seriously interested people.

Toward the back and closer to the house Teal’c and BD were flipping burgers on a huge grill. Teal’c was wearing one of his most colorful Hawaiian shirts and a chef’s hat with several rainbow buttons attached to it. BD had donned an apron featuring the words ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ and a cartoon of Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion holding hands. Jack had gotten a total kick out of it when they'd found it online.

Daniel had been worried it might be too risky, but Jack had said that no one could blame them for supporting their kid and that it was all about donations and charity. They all were aware that if someone wanted to do real harm to them this would probably be an opportunity to try. But Senator Kinsey was no more and there was no connection between the Rainbow Kids and the Air Force. It was a private party and they were all here as civilians.

General Jack O’Neill wasn't even in attendance.

Jack had pulled a lot of strings behind this, though. Had made the phone calls to arrange a meeting with Rupert Emmerson from the Rainbow Network to talk all this through and settle the donation money deal. He had helped Daniel get his ideas across and convinced the man to get in contact with Doc. Svenson who had been invested in the whole idea from the get go.

Pete had organized the grill – it belonged to the CSPD – and made a deal with the catering service which usually delivered the food for the BBQ the CSPD held twice a year. They had donated all the burgers and sausages. Pete had also brought the stereo and speakers. He was currently standing at the entrance to the yard making balloon animals and handing them out to passing kids.

Next to the grill was a refreshment stand selling lemonade, water and soft drinks, but also smoothies and juice mixes. Two women, mothers of Doc’s patients, had volunteered to work there all afternoon. Several other moms had initiated a bake sale. There were cupcakes, cookies, pies and rainbow cakes.

The bouncing castle was crawling with kids and then there was the game corner. Older teens were supervising the egg and spoon run, sack races and other games for the little ones. At another booth there was a painting competition – paint a super colorful rainbow – and in a different part of the yard games of Twister and musical statues were being played to the accompaniment of loud music. A group of teens had found a space to dance Hip Hop.

Some of the teens who supervised the games were patients – now former patients – of the Doc, others had just spontaneously shown up and asked if they could help.

There was another booth where kids could make their own earrings or necklaces. A local Swarovski store had sponsored the materials like stones, crystals, charms and tools – and three ladies from the store were there to assist with the intricate work.

The best part of this was how many random people stopped by, lured in by the music or the smell of the BBQ. And lots of them stayed for a while. The Rainbow people had done a lot of PR for today and BD had supplied the funds to run a big colorful announcement in the ‘Colorado Springs Independent’, since the ‘Gazette’ refused to print it. Still, it had all been on very short notice and Daniel had been afraid no one would pay attention.

But he had been wrong. And for a change he was delighted to be wrong.

He wished Jack was here to see it, but that couldn’t be helped. He also wished Al was here, but his friend was so mad at Daniel for not having a ‘real birthday party’ at the Garden and for doing it all here, today, he’d flatly refused to come. His mom – who had been horrified witness to Al yelling the house down and calling Daniel and his ‘pervert queer friends’ all kind of names – had tried to make Al at least apologize for being rude, but he flatly refused to talk to Daniel at all now.

Mrs. Miller was at the bake sale today. She had apologized for Al’s behavior and said he had locked himself into his room this morning and wouldn’t come out.

Daniel was beginning to realize that maybe Jack was right about Al’s high maintenance level and Daniel being too indulgent. But then he couldn’t really blame Al for not wanting to be here today. He only wished that Al hadn’t been such a jerk about it. And then again, Daniel knew a thing or two about venting and throwing tantrums...

He gave himself a mental thump over the head. Today was a super huge success and he was determined not to let anything or anyone spoil this day for him.

“Done!” Sam got up from her stool and stepped back to take a look at her handiwork. “Sweet.

He raised his arm and turned it this way and that. It almost looked like a ceremonial tattoo. Sam had kept the strands of different colors relatively small, but had wound them around his wrist and then up his arm like a flower twine or a ribbon. “Wow,” he blurted out, “I like it! Sam, you’re an artist!”

“If you’re careful it might hold for a couple of days. Until your next long shower, I guess,” she said.

“I wonder how Jack feels about real tattoos,” Daniel smirked.

“If you ever want to find out before you’re big again, don’t tell him my work inspired you,” Sam groaned.

Janet chuckled. “I bet he’ll find someone to remove it without leaving scars.” When the little girl Janet had worked on ran away to show her new tattoo to her mom, she added, “Probably the Tok’ra.” Then she laughed, “Ohhh, I bet Teal’c would know where to get a really cool tattoo on Chulak.”

Sam sighed. “I am not sure it’s good to put ideas like that into his head.”

Janet’s eyes were full of mischief. “Hah, I’m suffering through raising a teenager. I’m happy to share a little of that unique and lovely experience with him.”

Daniel sniggered and walked away, but he heard Sam say, “I think the general’s past experiences prepared him for raising a whole gang of teens.”

The smile turned into a grimace as he contemplated how much truth there was in what had been a joke. At least to some extent it had been a joke, he knew that. But there had been a lot of suffering before they'd reached the current level of peace.

Without thinking he walked over to the Rainbow Kids booth where Doctor Svenson was chatting with a younger man. When she saw him, she waved him over and introduced the other guy as Doctor Murphy. Daniel thought he looked almost too young to be a real doctor yet, but he knew how looks could be deceiving. He’d always been tagged for being too young to have doctorates. Well, he HAD been young, but he had earned them just the same way older students had.

Doctor Murphy had a head full of brown hair, open hazel eyes and a boyish grin.

“Gavin, meet Daniel. Turning my party into a Rainbow Charity event was his idea,” she said. She didn’t mention the donation money and he was grateful for that. They had agreed not to make it public because he didn’t want to be the center of too much attention.

For the public it had been an anonymous donation, but the Rainbow Network people had wanted a name and of course the money had to be transferred from a bank account. After some debating, Daniel had decided to put BD in as the donor. He didn’t want to raise uncomfortable questions about why an 11 year old orphaned kid, adopted by an USAF general, had that kind of money. They could have said he'd inherited it of course, but they all knew that a cover story worked best when kept very simple.

So he had moved the money to BD’s account and he had donated it to Rainbow Kids. They had kept Jack’s name out of thetransaction so he wasn’t officially connected to an LGBT related charity.

Doctor Murphy had a nice firm hand shake. “Hi! You’re Doctor Jackson’s nephew, right? Your uncle donated for having this huge advertisement in the papers and printing flyers to plaster the whole town with them.”

“Yeah. He’s at the grill.”

“I know. Talked to him earlier. I love his apron. So you organized this party for us? That’s a great idea, Daniel.”

“I, uh, I had a lot of help. And the party was going to happen anyway. I just highjacked it. It was really nice of Doctor Svenson to play along.” She had been delighted to turn her farewell party into a charity event and had mobilized her patients’ parents to participate.

“Are you kidding? This is a big big success and being part of it feels great.” She raised her cup. “We’re rocking the town today, Daniel.”

He grinned. “Well, part of it anyway.”

Doctor Murphy looked like the cat that ate the canary. “I bet you have no idea how smug I feel today. It’s like a victory. We can do this here on private ground – and no one can sue us or tell us to pack up and leave.” He held up his hand and Daniel high-fived him.

“I can’t believe how many people are here,” Daniel said. “There was so little participation in the protest march.”

“Never underestimate the smell of burger and sausages. And cake.” Doc Svenson smirked.

Doctor Murphy turned to a couple to give them one of the Rainbow Kids leaflets. When he was back, he said, “We’ve been trying to get a permit to set up an information booth at the pedestrian mall for quite some time. To draw more attention to us. But they kept stringing us along saying maybe next week... maybe next month... then they kept finding issues with the regulations of setting up a booth in the place we wanted to be.” Murphy gave them a lopsided smile. “The wheels turn slowly in politics and there’s always too much red tape. But I don’t want to bore you with this stuff. Your idea has given us a legal way of getting in touch with folks and that’s awesome. We even found sponsors like the Swarovski store and CS Catering. Lots of companies we contacted shut the doors in our faces, but this is a start.”

“Do you work at the center?” Daniel asked to steer the attention away from himself.

“Yep. I’m their local shrink. I’ve been with them for a year now, at the center in Denver. I’m going to work at the new center here three days a week, but I’m also going to have my own office now.” He looked around the yard and his eyes settled on the red brick building. “Never had my own office before. I’m a bit nervous to be honest.”

“You’re taking over Doctor Svenson’s office?” Daniel looked at the man with new interest. He still hadn’t decided if he was going to continue therapy or not.

“Isn’t that amazing? One huge thing less I need to fret about!” Doc Svenson beamed at them. She had been worried because there hadn’t been anyone to take over her patients and the office. She owned the building and wanted to rent it out, but no one had been interested in the place. She had started to find other psychologist all over the Springs and in Manitou Springs to take over her patients. Now it seemed all the pieces had fallen together nicely for her.

“Yep. And it seems her patients won’t hold my LGBT work against me, which is a good start. And that’s another good side effect of the party – getting to know them.”

“Most of them are pretty open minded, or learned to be,” Doc Svenson assured him. “You’ll settle in just fine.”

“After today I’m sure I will.” Then he had to tend to several people approaching the rainbow booth. Among them were two older teens who seemed reluctant to speak up, but were obviously interested in the center.

Doctor Svenson put her cup down on the booth counter and nodded at Doctor Murphy who had quickly talked the two boys into taking a look at the leaflet.

“If you decide to continue seeing a therapist, I think you would get along well with Doctor Murphy, Daniel.”

Daniel shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“I know. But if you ever feel like you need help again... he’s young, but he comes highly recommended and I think he’d be very interested in your... back story.”

“Every shrink would be interested in my back story. It’s a shrink story after all.” He chuckled a little at the double meaning.

She snorted. “Right. But I think he’d be right for you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said a bit uneasy. The concept of trusting a new guy with all his petty issues and weird back story made him uncomfortable. He had taken a huge leap of faith with Doc. Svenson, but it had taken a while to get there and he wasn’t sure he wanted to start over with someone new if he could avoid it.

“They’d have to clear him to know,” he said thoughtfully.

“I have already recommended him to the SGC. They are doing a background check on him. As you know I’m working... worked with several kids of SG team members. If he wants to take over all my patients, they have to clear him anyway.”

“True.” But he was still not sure he wanted to see someone else.

As if she had read his thoughts she looked at him, her Nordic blue eyes full of understanding. “You will be fine, Daniel Jackson O’Neill. Never doubt that. Bumps in the road are a given, but you’ll be fine.”

He had to swallow a sudden lump in his throat. He was going to miss her. She had been a sea of calm for his often so confusing and overactive mind. She and her icky herbal teas and Ikea furniture and the way she made him see things in a different light. She had helped him and Jack help themselves without being invasive or overbearing. And never, not once, had she talked down to him or treated him like a bratty child, not even when he had actually deserved to be treated like one.

“California is so cool,” he told her to lighten up the mood. “I...,” he lowered his voice, “I went to UCLA. I didn’t have much time to do anything but study and I didn’t have any money to spend either. But you’ll love the beaches and the sun and...” He trailed off, not sure what else to say. Finally he settled for, “Good luck. And thank you.”

“Thank you, Daniel. You’ve widened my horizon on so many levels,” she said softly. “Working with you was a wonderful opportunity. I guess that’s what I’m going to miss the most. My working relationship with the SGC has been the most fascinating time of my career. Gavin is in for a big surprise if they’re going to clear him.” She sniggered like it was the best joke ever. “I wish I could be here to see his face.”

He had no idea in what way he might have widened her horizon, but he was happy she felt that way. When he spotted Cassie and Dominik he excused himself and strolled over to them.

“Hey, Daniel. Cool party, dude.” Dom balanced a piece of cake on a napkin, holding it out to Cassie so she could take a bite. She took a big one and rolled her eyes in bliss. “Oh my gosh, this is awesome. Hey, Daniel. I’m going to take over from mom at body painting. Your tattoo looks neat, by the way.”

“Thanks. Sam made it.”

“Sam does a lot of air brushing. She’s good with a normal brush, too.” Cassie gave him the thumb’s up.

Dominik, a tall dark haired 19 year old with a gleaming earring, nudged her in the general direction of the drinks. “Let’s get high on some juice before you have to do body painting.”

“Can I paint you, too?” she asked as they moved on.

“Rainbows all over me, sure why not.”

Daniel looked after them, smothering a smile. They were a cute couple and had been together for quite some time now. He wondered if they would stay together even though they were at different colleges now. But Dominik had stuck with her even though she had almost electrocuted him at their first kiss and he seemed to patiently endure all her little quirks and her often no nonsense attitude.

Daniel wandered aimlessly through the backyard. It was a lovely place, lots of space for a neatly trimmed lawn, but there were also gnarly old apple trees and a wildflower patch. He passed the Doc’s herbal garden and wondered briefly if Murphy would continue to take care of it. Probably only if he was into the same kind of tea.

There was a paved courtyard, larger than a normal deck, by the backdoor of the house and that’s where the dancing games took place. A group of teens had started another Hip Hop session and Daniel watched them for a while. He didn’t like this kind of music, but had to admit their moves were acrobatic and interesting. And very skilled.

“Hey, tiny.”

He spun around, recognizing her voice before he actually saw her. But then he almost thought he was wrong. Her hair, still untamed and mop-like, was a chestnut brown today. However, there were several small ribbons braided into it. Blue, yellow, red, green, violet. She was still wearing those wristband in the same colors. He made out words on them. Pride. Equality. Double female.

And there was the rainbow piercing. Sparkling.

“Daniel. Not tiny.” He tried to look annoyed. But his heart went a little pitter patter.

“Tara.” She chewed gum as they measured each other.

Daniel’s 11 year old body thought she was the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world. Daniel’s grown up mind started panicking a little.

“H.. hey. I love your hair,” he blurted out. _Oh my god, can you be a bit more embarrassing?_ He felt the heat creeping up his neck and into his face. “The... the ribbons. Cool.” Maybe that saved him.

“I had it sprayed for the protest thing. It washed out really well, but mom said if I do that again, I’m toast.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously; their color reminded him of Cafe Latte or the caramel syrup they used at Starbucks.

“Rainbow toast?”

She waggled her pierced eyebrow and sniggered. “Good one.”

“How’d you get your mom to agree to that piercing?” he asked, curious. At least he was able to talk in normal sentences, which was good.

“You kidding? Faked her signature, had it done and almost got killed for that. But it was worth it. I can’t wear it at home though, she kicks me out every time I do.”

“Wow.” He wasn’t sure if she was brave or insane. Probably both.

Someone yelled, “Tink, get up here, your dance is on.”

There it was again. “Tink?”

She huffed and waved it off. “Those idiots, they call me Tink. Like the fairy from Peter Pan, Tinkerbell. They started doing that in elementary. Never got rid of that nick.” She blew a pink gum bubble, sucked it back in, gave him a little wave and was off to join the Hip Hop group.

He stood and watched, lost in thoughts about how there really was something fairy-like about her because she moved with such graceful easiness, which was a stark contrast to the hard and – to his ears - annoying kind of music she was dancing to.

Maybe she WAS his first crush, after all. Out of reach of course because she was at least four or five years old than him, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he wanted to do anything about it... and it wasn’t really about her, anyway, it was just...

 _She’s at least 24 years younger than you. She could be your daughter._ That thought caught him like lightning out of nowhere and he spun around and fled, almost running away, panicking.

He didn’t stop until he reached the Rainbow Kids booth. Doctor Murphy was in a conversation with a couple and what appeared to be their son. Doctor Svenson was handing out rainbow wrapped bonbons to a group of smaller children. Daniel stopped short when she looked up and smiled at him.

He forced out a smile of his own and turned away. But she called for him to come over and after a moment of fight or flight he reluctantly approached the booth.

“Daniel, are you all right?” She put the bowl of bonbons down.

“Yeah, fine.”

She frowned, then told Murphy she was taking a break and left the booth. “Let’s go get some lemonade or juice, shall we?”

He didn’t want to go with her. He wanted to be alone and think. Or maybe he wanted to go home and hide in his tree house. But he followed her and allowed her to buy him a strawberry banana smoothie. She got one for herself, too, and headed for the small bistro tables by the apple trees.

They sat down in the plastic chairs and Daniel, because he didn’t know what else to do, started sucking on his straw. The juice was too sweet and too sticky for his taste, but he kept drinking and staring at the table.

“Is it good?” she asked.

He nodded and took another sip.

“Maybe this will help. I thought you looked a bit pale and wobbly there. It’s probably the heat. I know exactly what that feels like. I can’t be in the sun for very long either.”

“No, it’s not that.” He let go of the straw and put his glass on the table. “Thanks for the drink, Doc.”

“You’re welcome. Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. But what came out of his mouth was, “Maybe... maybe I need... maybe it’d be better if I continue this therapy thing... for a while.”

Suddenly he wished Jack was here. It was childish and stupid, but he still had that from time to time when faced with situations like these. That he needed Jack to be there. As moral support.

The Doc nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. Even if it’s just for emergency calls and not regular therapy. But you could get to know him first, now that you’re in such a good place, so you’ll know you can trust him when you actually need help.”

“I... I think Doctor Murphy, he’s...” Daniel grabbed his glass and took another gulp of the juice before he continued, “I don’t know him so I can’t tell, but if you think he’s okay...”

“I can send you links to some of his work. You could read his thesis for example, it’s online. He is working with LGBT teens for a while now, but he has also worked with gifted kids, to help them cope with their high IQ and how to deal with the problems they experience in everyday life.”

“Okay.”

She finished her own drink and looked at him over the rim of her glass. “I saw you with the girl over at the dancing games. She’s cute, huh?”

“But she shouldn’t be!” He had blurted it out before he could hold back. Now he bit his lip hard enough to cause actual pain.

Her gaze was curious. “No?”

“No. It’s... it’s just wrong.”

“Daniel, your body is 11. You know all the physical changes are going to start now. Basically your body and your brain will be construction areas from now on until you’re around... 19... well, maybe it won’t take that long in your case because your mind can deal with a lot of this on a more rational basis.”

“That’s just it. My mind isn’t 11. I’m 41 today. I can’t walk around having crushes on teens. I feel like a pedophile.” He felt disgusted, dirty. Like a pervert.

“Your body isn't going to listen to your mind all through puberty. And I’d be more concerned if you were developing crushes on people twice or three times _your_ physical age,” she said calmly.

“Either way I’m screwed, because that feels gross, too,” he bottom lined it with a bitter little snort.

“Have you ever even remotely been attracted to minors?”

He blinked furiously. “What? No! Of course not.”

“Then, Daniel, you are not a pedophile.” She put her glass down.

“But... I can’t have crushes on... kids.” He couldn’t. And while – right now – it wasn’t anything but harmless butterflies and a tiny bit of awakening, he’d be 12, 13, 14, 15,16... and his stupid body would betray him over and over again. He had known that, but never seen it from this angle before.

“You won’t always be able to make a crush go away with just pure will,” she said gently, “but your mind will be able to deal with this. And if you are ever going to date a teenager your physical age or maybe a bit older, things will fall into place when you feel like it’s the right person to be with.”

“But I’m still going to be twenty years or so older than them,” he insisted.

“And one day those twenty years will help you to make your choices. And whoever you will be with will be very fortunate to have found a guy like you. Because you know all the ways to make someone happy. I’m sure of that.”

He considered that, but it still felt wrong. On so many levels.

“You can’t change what you are,” she said quietly. “But I believe your first time will be much better than it was the first time around. And I’m sure it’ll be with someone special, not with some random kid you met in a club or at the library. I don’t tag you for the casual type.” She winked at him and smiled.

He scowled at her. But he did feel a little better. At least she didn’t think he was a pervert. Or growing into one. That counted for something. She was the shrink after all. And he didn’t have to hang out with other kids. He never had and since that wasn’t going to change, maybe he’d be okay. And he couldn’t picture himself ever falling in love with Al.

“Thank you,” he murmured after an awkward stretch of silence.

That he was sitting here on this hot summer afternoon, drinking strawberry banana smoothies and talking about sexual issues with a psychologist was beyond surreal.

“Doctor Murphy will be here for you, Daniel. But if you ever,” she pulled a card from the pocket of her red blouse and put it on the table, “need to talk to me, please feel free to call.”

He nodded and took the card, put it into the pocket of his jeans. “Thanks,” he said again.

“Now.” She stood and clapped her hands. “Time for cake!”

“Cake?”

“Yes! Come with me, birthday boy.”

Daniel groaned, “Oh no, please tell me you didn’t...” but followed her anyway.

  
  


The cake turned out to be a giant coffee walnut cake with butter cream topping and what seemed to be hundreds of candles. Teal’c, Dominik, Sam and Cassie carried the large table it sat on into the yard. It was big enough to feed an army.

‘Happy Birthday, Daniels’ was written on it in huge letters made from chocolate coffee beans. And of course all the candles were rainbow colored.

Doctor Murphy clambered on the work counter of the Rainbow booth, holding a megaphone.

Daniel covered his face with his hands and wished for an invisibility spell. Gone. Beamed away. He’d rather sit in a briefing room with the Joint Chiefs, Thor and Jacob right now...

“That settles it. Next year we’ll go to the cabin for our birthday,” BD said next to him, horror lacing his voice.

“No kidding,” Daniel groaned just before Doctor Murphy’s voice boomed all over the party grounds, announcing they had two birthdays to celebrate. Then he went on about how the Daniels had made today’s party possible.

“We need kids like Daniel in our world. Kids who show us being tolerant and accepting can be easy and that equality should be a given, not a privilege. Kids like Daniel will grow into adults who will make this world a better, more peaceful place. And adults like Doctor Jackson are exactly the kind of role model our kids need. Thank you, Daniel, both of you.” Murphy then continued to thank Doctor Svenson for hosting the party at her place, but that was drowned in the applause, cheers and whistles coming from all over the yard.

“C’mon and cut the cake,” Murphy called out to them.

“I told them not to do anything like this. I TOLD them,” Daniel bristled.

“Nothing we can do about that now. Smile.” BD pushed him forward. When they reached the cake table, Sam hugged and kissed BD and then handed both of them a knife and a cake server.

“We had nothing to do with this,” Cassie said as soon as Daniel opened his mouth to ask. She hugged him first and then went over to BD.

“Nope. Nothing to do with it,” Sam confirmed. Then she grabbed Daniel and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Happy birthday, Daniel.”

Teal’c gave her a disapproving look. “Indeed we have, Colonel Carter. We ordered this cake. It is soaked with espresso. I expressed my doubts about the butter cream. My suggestion was chocolate frosting, but I was out-voted. I wish both of you a happy birthday, and many returns.” He bowed his head in respect and a smile twinkled in his dark eyes. “May the cake feast begin!”

“Yes, yes, we ordered the cake. But we didn’t tell anyone to make a speech or anything,” Sam hurried to say. “We knew you wouldn’t like that. We told them we’d just put it out here and...”

“And you thought that would happen without someone wanting to tell the world? These people are psychologists. They claim to know what’s best for you and will do it without mercy,” BD groused.

“But being psychologists would imply they know you wouldn’t want this kind of attention,” Cassie countered.

“Yes! But they probably thought we should get over it because we deserve this somehow.”

Cassie laughed. “I think they’re right. Get over it, enjoy it, have cake!”

“I do not believe you deserve torturing for what you did,” Teal’c said.

Daniel sighed. “Never mind. Doc Svenson knows it’s our birthday. If you hadn’t ordered the cake she might have done it herself. Smart of her to make Doctor Murphy give the speech so she can’t be blamed.”

With Sam and Teal’c’s help they cut and handed out pieces of cake to everyone. They smiled and nodded and smiled and nodded to the people who thanked them and wished them a happy birthday. It was awful, but it also felt kind of good.

And after a while Daniel began to relax in the middle of all the mayhem and happy cake-eating people. The volume of the stereo had been turned up and some female singer’s voice floated over to them.

_Sometimes I fix things up, and they fall apart again. Nobody's perfect, I know I mix things up, but I always get it right in the end..._

Daniel shoveled up the next piece of cake, turned around and almost dropped it. “Al!”

The pale skinny boy in his too baggy red USAF t-shirt gave him a crooked grin. “Hi. Happy birthday. Wow, this is a crowd.”

“Yeah.” Daniel handed him his cake. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s your birthday. I wanted to be here.” He cringed. “If that’s okay.”

“Sure!” He looked over to BD who gave him a nod and waved them away.

“C’mon, I’ll show your everything.”

“’kay.”

The boys took a tour through the yard and Al ate his cake. “It’s really good,” he said, licking his lips. “Little too much coffee maybe. But still good.”

Daniel showed Al his tattoo and his friend said it was cool, but when Daniel prompted him to get one, too, he shook his head.

“I might be allergic to the paint they’re using.”

“Oh, right.”

“D’ya think that club can open now?” Al asked.

“Yes. I think they will.” Daniel’s savings hadn’t matched what they needed, but had taken them a huge step closer to their goal and today would hopefully give them even more money. The rest, at least that’s what Rupert Emmerson had said, they would get as a loan from their bank in New York.

They strolled over to one of the apple trees and sat down underneath it. Daniel and the Doc had sometimes had their sessions out here, under these trees. There were already small green apples on them. In a month or two they would be red and ready to eat. He wondered if Doc Murphy would pick them and make apple pie, like Doc Svenson had done sometimes. Daniel had loved her apple pie just as much as he hated her herbal tea.

Al started playing with the laces of his red sneakers. “Sorry,” he muttered after a long pause.

“I know you were mad. But you could’ve just said you didn’t want to come. I told you we could have cake and play some games tomorrow at home. It’s not like I forced you to join us here.”

He got that Al didn’t like to be close to older kids or to kids he didn’t know. He’d have understood if Al had said he was uncomfortable and didn’t want to come. But he’d been so angry and unyielding even when Daniel had offered tomorrow as a way to celebrate with Al, too.

Al scrubbed both hands through his short brown hair and stared at the grass. “No one ever invited me to a birthday party before. And last year I was at the computer club summer camp and couldn’t come.”

Daniel pulled at tufts of grass. “Yeah.”

“I was happy to go to the Garden and I like hanging out with Murray and Sam, your uncle Daniel and your dad.”

“They’re all here. Well except for my... for Jack.”

“You never call him dad,” Al wondered.

Daniel wasn’t sure what to say. But before he could come up with something, Al went on, “It’s not the same. I thought we’d sing Happy birthday to you and your uncle and have cake and a campfire and … your dad said we could have some fireworks because you didn’t do Independence day.”

They had worked on Independence day. SG-1 had been off world and Jack had taken Daniel out to dinner that evening, but they didn’t have fireworks. Al was right. They had wanted to do it on his birthday instead.

“I was mad because I so wanted to do all that with you and your family.” Al finally looked up, blinking away an errant tear. “And this isn’t a real birthday party. It’s different and I'm not comfortable with all these people and all the rainbow stuff. And I think you shouldn’t get involved with this ‘cause your dad is military. It’s strange he lets you do this.”

 _Oh, Al, you have no idea,_ Daniel thought and felt a little sad all of a sudden. He wasn’t sure where his friendship with Al was going from here on out, but there was a crack already and he had a feeling that crack might get bigger someday and maybe drive them apart.

And yet his friend had shown up despite all his misgivings and apologized. And for now it was enough, had to be enough.

“You came. And that’s great. You don’t have to hang out with LGBT kids. It’s just to help them, not to make friends or to join them.”

“Why you wanna help them?” Al asked carefully. Daniel could hear a wary undertone in his friend’s voice.

He was on the verge of telling him ‘because I’m one of them’ and then... didn’t. Not just out of sympathy or consideration for Al, but because Daniel didn’t want to deal with the fallout of that right now. And because Al was just a kid. There would be time to tell him later, once they were both old enough to discuss girls or something. Maybe Al would be less uncomfortable with the whole subject in a couple of years. Maybe not. But Daniel knew intuitively that now wasn’t the time to club him over the head with this.

“Because I had to,” he said with a shrug.

Al thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “You like helping others, huh?”

“I don’t like injustice... or prejudice. And I like to make a difference if I can.”

“You’re weird,” Al concluded with a friendly grin.

“So’re you. I’m glad you’re here.” Daniel raised a fist.

“You’re my friend and I’m not always a great friend to you, but you keep stickin’ with me.” They bumped their fists together and then high-fived.

“Thanks for coming,” Daniel said sincerely.

Al wiped his eye and grinned. “Can I still come over tomorrow?”

“Sure! We have to continue reading,” Daniel teased and Al fell back into the grass and howled.

“Nooooo.”

Daniel giggled despite the slight heaviness in his heart. Al jumped up and ran away, yelling, “He’s torturing meee!”

And Daniel leaped and ran after him, chasing the dark clouds away for the moment.

  
  


Late that night, the moon was high in the sky, but it hadn’t cooled down significantly, the Daniels sat on the deck at home. Sam, Pete and Teal’c had just left a moment ago.

There were two bottles of Merlot on the table BD, Sam and Teal’c had emptied together. Teal’c had developed an occasional liking for alcohol over the years after he had gotten rid of junior. He never appeared to be drunk unless he combined alcohol with sugar – cake or cookies or even chocolate – then he got tipsy pretty fast. That’s why they hadn’t let him have any of the leftover cake they had brought home from the party. But Teal’c hadn’t been bothered by that. He’d had a bowl of olives and feta cheese to pick from. Pete had been the assigned driver so he had stuck to non alcoholic beer.

Daniel sipped root beer and felt wonderfully tired.

It had been a great day for everyone, but now he was glad to be home and very grateful the Rainbow Kids guys had volunteered to take care of all the tidying up and to return the grill tomorrow.

He thought of his family and how he didn’t need anything else for his birthday because they had given him the most precious gift today. They had given him their time, had agreed to work all day at his party instead of just celebrating and having a leisurely weekend at the Garden. No one had complained or even given the impression of being unhappy with Daniel’s change of plans. They had launched into this with so much enthusiasm, had supported his wacky idea without a doubt.

Of course he had thanked them for doing this, for sacrificing their free weekend for this, for him. And the Rainbow Kids. They told him it had been fun. He wasn’t sure it had really been fun all the time, but he believed it when they said they had been happy to help.

“Shoooo...” BD stretched his legs and looked at the starry sky. “Are you going to visit the Rainbow Kids? Hang out at the center? Get to know some other kids your apparent age?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I just wanted to help, that’s all.”

“Okay.”

Daniel sighed. “Buuut?”

“But what?”

“There’s a but there, I can hear it.”

“No, no but.” BD kept looking at the sky. “It’s pretty clear tonight. We could go to the roof if you’re not too tired.”

Daniel jumped up. “Yes, c’mon!”

They made sure the dog was in the house and turned on the alarm system, then climbed the ladder to the roof platform and settled on the wooden bench. They took turns stargazing through the telescope and telling each other what constellations they were looking at.

“You could, you know,” BD said after a while, totally out of context.

“Hmmm?” Daniel tried to focus the telescope on the moon to find craters. He liked looking at the moon. With the telescope it seemed so close, he could see everything – valleys, hills, shadows. Even though the moon wasn’t interesting as a planet perse, it was still fun looking at it.

“Get to know other kids. Maybe when you’re older and the gap doesn’t seem so huge anymore.”

“The gap will always be huge in some ways,” Daniel said quietly.

BD nodded. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right. But you could... you know.... try.”

Daniel let go of the telescope and stared at his feet. “No,” he murmured. “I’d rather... not.”

“You know I’m not trying to talk you into anything here, right?” BD asked. “But I remember what it was like... the first time around. And you’ve come a very long way already from being so tied up and shy. You might, uh, enjoy some of it.”

“I have friends,” Daniel said. “You guys are my friends and my family. I don’t need anything else. If I want to hang with kids, I can hang with Al.” He was too tired to be defensive about this and he actually believed BD when he said he wasn’t trying to talk him into anything.

He could never be like a normal kid his age, no matter how hard he tried. No matter how far he’d come in some ways. He had just realized that again today. But it was okay.

He could cope with this now and it didn’t depress him anymore. He had chosen this life and he didn’t regret making that choice. There was so much he could do, so much cool stuff he wanted to try – it didn’t have to involve being part of a clique.

BD smiled and put an arm around him. “Okay. The most important thing is that you’re happy.”

Daniel smiled back at him. “I am.”

There were footsteps on the ladder and a dark figure appeared at the edge of the platform. “I missed allll the cake and allll the fun.”

“Jack! I thought you weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow!” Daniel got up to greet him.

Jack ruffled his hair, which usually annoyed him these days, but he let it go today. “Didn’t take them that long to figure there’s nothing much we can do. You should’ve seen Thor. He ran the whole thing like this.” Jack snapped his fingers and they settled down on the bench again.

BD and Jack kissed over Daniel’s head and BD asked for details of the meeting, but Jack didn’t want to talk about that and said there wasn’t any real news anyway. Instead he wanted to hear all about the party and bemoaned once more the missing out on cake.

“I think Janet took pictures of it.” BD chuckled at Jack’s scowl.

“Don’t worry, there’s still leftover cake in the fridge. At least one or two pieces. It was a GIANT cake,” Daniel said which led to Jack ushering them back into the house.

While Jack ate his cake with great pleasure Daniel showed him his tattoo.

“Did I mention I missed all the fun?” Jack muttered.

“I have one, too. But I’ll show you later.” BD grinned.

Jack’s eyebrows shot upwards. “You didn’t let Carter paint you in odd places, didya?”

“Err, nope. I don’t think she would have appreciated that.”

“Ohhh, I’m not so sure about that.” Jack eyed BD up and down. “Where is it?”

“It’s on his leg,” Daniel spoiled it. “Well, on his ankle.”

“I wonder if Carter could show me how to do body painting,” Jack wondered thoughtfully.

“I can show you,” BD said with a smirk. “I took lessons many moons ago. For a presentation of Egyptian body make up through the dynasties.”

Jack blinked.

Daniel figured this was his cue to go to bed and leave them to exploring tattoos and discussing body painting in more detail. But when he said goodnight to them, Jack sobered and put a hand on his shoulder.

“There’s something I want to talk to you about. We could do it tomorrow, but I think it’s much better now while you’re probably... hopefully... tired enough to not put up too much of a fight.”

“Or,” BD threw in, “he’s so tired that he’ll throw a tantrum and never talk to you again.”

Jack glared at him. “ _Thank you, Daniel._ ”

BD grinned. “Just saying.”

Daniel blinked and sat down at the kitchen table. “What?”

Jack looked indecisive for a moment and he shared a silent but meaningful look with BD. But then he slipped onto the kitchen bench across from Daniel and BD sat down by his side.

Daniel was getting nervous now. “What?” he asked again, more alarmed.

“Uh... you know when we talked about your money and how I thought you should keep some for yourself?” Jack looked at BD again, but he just smiled and shook his head.

Apparently Jack was on his own with this. Whatever _this_ was.

“Ye-ah?” Daniel’s eyes darted from Jack to BD and back.

“You gave it all away and I have to live with that, but...” Jack glanced at BD again, then looked Daniel square in the eye. “I have a college fund for you.”

Daniel stared back at him. “What?”

“Actually it used to be Charlie’s.”

 _Charlie’s? What?_ “You kept up Charlie’s college fund after he died?” Daniel was momentarily distracted by that information.

“We saved up for ten years and then... we just left it there to grow interest. Neither of us had the nerve to do anything with it. Sara said it was like the last bond that connected us to him. Eventually, a couple years ago, when she got re-married, she took out her part of the money. But my half of it is still there. I want you to have it when you need it.”

“But...”

Jack raised a finger. “I know you said you’re not interested in going to college again and I hear you. But if you ever change your mind or if you want to go abroad to work on digsites or take classes of any kind, that money is yours.”

Daniel shook his head. “I can’t take that, Jack. It’s too much. It’s your money. You should keep it for when you and Daniel are retired and want to live in Minnesota or get a boat or whatever.”

“It was always meant to be a college fund. I have other savings. You could start adding to it a little bit every couple of months, but that’s up to you.”

“Jack, I can’t take this. You already pay for so much of my stuff, I don’t...”

“I know you can save up again, but the money is there. It was supposed to be my legacy to Charlie and I think he would like you to have it.”

“But...”

“You have the right to spend your money the way you want to. I have the same right with mine.” There was a smirk, but it went away quickly. “Please, let me do it. It’s what parents do.”

Torn between two strong emotions – Daniel had always been proud to still be independent in some ways like carrying his weight up to a point, having his own bank account and his own paycheck. But he had also learned to take the offered support and help from the safety net that was his family and have faith that it would last – he sat there and didn’t know what to say or how to feel.

Finally he turned to BD. “Were you in on this?” It came out more sharply than he intended it to be.

“Uh, yeah – but I told Jack I’m not sure it was a good idea.”

“He said you might feel patronized or...” Jack frowned. “What was it?”

“Uhh...That it might feel to him as if you don’t trust him to save enough money again or that he won’t stop giving away his money to charities or that he made a big mistake and you found a way to make sure he won’t regret it... That you’re doing this because you don’t want to lock down his bank account to avoid further gracious donations.”

“Yeah, he had a list,” Jack deadpanned.

“But that’s not what this is about,” Daniel said slowly.

“No. And what you did there, for Rainbow Kids, was a good thing. A bit bold, but good.”

Daniel couldn’t keep the reluctant smile off his face. Jack had been so great about all this, but until now Daniel hadn’t been entirely sure how his guardian actually felt about it.

Jack shrugged. “Well, this donation thing made me decide to tell you now, but that money... I was your next of kin even before you got shrunk. And it was always supposed to be yours one day. It’s in my will. If one of those snake heads had kicked my ass to Netu, it would have been yours anyway. But I’m not planning on leaving this plane of existence anytime soon and it’s way more fun to give it to you this way and see what you’re going to do with it.”

“I can add to it?”

“Yep, as little or as much as you like. But it’s for you only, not for charities or pet shelters. If you want to keep donating money, you have to take it from your paychecks.”

“That _is_ kind of patronizing,” Daniel pointed out.

“And blackmailing,” BD said helpfully.

“I know,” Jack said llightly.

Daniel got up and squeezed in with Jack on the kitchen bench. He had long outgrown the need for constant cuddling, but there was a sudden lump in his throat and he leaned into him and then buried his face against Jack’s shoulder when he was gently pulled into a one arm hug.

It wasn’t about the money, he didn’t care about the money, didn’t even want to know how much it was.

It was all about being loved this much.

“Thanks,” he murmured a bit hoarsely.

“No,” Jack said softly. “Thank _you_.”

Daniel sniffled and looked up. “For what?”

“For allowing me to do this for you. Happy birthday, kiddo.”

“See?” BD leaned back in his chair, grinning at them from ear to ear. “I _knew_ it was a great idea.”

Flyboy who had been dozing on the floor by the backdoor was startled out of his cozy dreams by their laughter and Jack’s shouts of affectionate insults.

Later, when they stood in the dark yard and fired off a couple of their independence day rockets, one for each Daniel, life couldn’t get any better than this.

**Fin**


End file.
